LIBRARY OF CpNGRESS. 

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



^^TjGHAjV 



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Freedmen's Pension Bill 



BEING AN APPEAL IN BEHALF OFAIEN 
RELEASED FRQM SLAVERY. 




A Plea for American Freedmen 



AND A RATIONAL PROPOSITION TO GRANT PENSIONS 

TO PERSONS OF COLOR EMANCIPATED 

FROM SLAVERY. 



BY W. R. VAUGHAKT 

OMAHA, NEBRASKA. 




HE UNITED S TATES. 



• • 



©omplimepts 

of tl^e flutl^or 



• • 




AV ALTER R. VAUCiHAN. 

Omaha, Nebraska. 

(See Sketch on i)age 50.) 



VATJQHAN'S 



"Freedmen's Pension Bill." 



BEING AN APPEAL IN BEHALF OF AlEN 
RELEASED FROM SLAVERY. 



A PIvKA KOR 



AMERICAN FREEDMEN 

AND 

A Rational Proposition to Grant Pensions 

TO Persons of Color Emancipated 

From Slavery. 






I 



WALTER R. yAXJOHAN, 

OMAHA, NEBRASKA. 



E\ss 




'^/\S\ ft j<?j\^'' 



Entered According to Act of Congress, in the Year 1890, by 

W. R. VAUGHAN, 

OMAHA, NEBRASKA, 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. 



ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 



w 



/a- 5^^^^ 






DEDICATED TO 
W. J. CoNNELL, the brave representative in the halls of the 
American Congress, from Nebraska, who dared to sa}- that the 
slave of a centur}^ is entitled to financial recognition because of 
former wrongs. To him it is dedicated b}- the author of this 
book and also the Pension Bill. 

By his friend, 

WALTER R. VAUGHAN. 




SLAVES FROM 1620 TO 1802—242 YEARS-SANCTIONKD BY THE UNITED STATUS. 



PREFACE. 

In approaching' a work tl at I deem to be of national im- 
portance, it may be a duty I owe to my countrymen, whether 
white or black, to .^ay that I have been moved in the direction of 
asking the Government to provide pensions for former slaves by 
a sense of duty which I esteem the Grovernment to owe to men 
who have been the unwilling subjects of lawful authority adversely 
to their natural right of personal liberty. The people made free 
by Presidential Proclamation, and confirmed in their freedom by 
amendments to the Federal Constitution, and b}'^ the organic laws 
of those States where shivery was a recognized institution prior to 
the war of the rebellion, have certain natural rights that neither 
the puffs of newspaper writers nor the whimsical cant of small fr}^ 
politicians can oppress into obedient silence. The fact stands 
forth in historic writ that an enslaved black race has been set free 
after a lifetime of service to masters not of its own choosing. 
During the years of negro servitude colored men, women and 
children have been rated as chattels and taxed as such for the ex- 
clusive benefit of the white race. Courts, schools and benevolent 
institutions have been established and maintained upon the blood 
and sweat of the negro race. The cattle upon southern planta- 
tions returned less money into the public treasury for the main- 
tenance of educational institutions than negro chattels held into 
slaver}^ through a system of traditional wrong. The direct 
beneficiaries of the system of slavery were not responsible for a 
wrong entailed upon them. Until the ^ysiy for emancipation was 
opened, by the circumstances of war, the freedom of the Africo- 
Araerican race was nearly if not quite impracticable. 

The vicissitude of civil war presented a gloomy picture in the 
history of the American republic. States dissevered, homes 
divided and old-time personal friends made public enemies, are but 
a few of the wretched features of the days made vivid by the con- 
tinuous gun-powder flashes that burst upon the eyes of an amazed 
people from Bull Run to Appamattox — from 1861 to 1865. 
Amidst the din and clash of horrid war bat one rainbow of heav- 
enly promise beamed upon the American people as a result of the 
collapse of the Confederacy. A harbinger of good will came in the 



8 rRElACE. 

assured freedom of the previous!}' condemned slave. Slowly from, 
the ruin of war the States Avere rehabilitated, and took their places 
as members of the Constitutional Union. At every stage of recon- 
struction the freedom of the negro was made more certain, and in 
that work the doom of slavery was forever settled upon the North 
American continent. 

But the freedom of the negro has not compensated the families 
turned adrift from home and bade to work for i^ersonal subsist- 
ence. In old age, and many in the throes of poverty, thej' ap- 
peal to the Government that made them free to furnish them a 
necessary support. The Government has no right to convert the 
circumstances of their freedom into a condition of absolute cruelty. 
If the saviors of a nation are entitled to the aid of the GoA^ern- 
ment, surely the wards of the nation are worthy of practical 
assistance . 

Be just to the blacks of the days of slaverj-. Their recognition 
as citizens, worthy of compensation for past errors of the Govern- 
ment, will do more to elevate the fame of a great nation that dares 
to be just, even at a late hour, than all the story of its brilliant 
achievements in arms. The glory of American freedom will be 
made perfect in the pension of tlie surviving slaves of the ante- 
bellum period. WALTER E. YAUGHAN. 

Omaha, Neb., October 1, 1890. 



VAUGHAN'S PLEA FOR THE OLD SLAVES. 



The work of history, written in the interest of the races of 
mankind, has been sadl}^ deficient in its efforts to do justice 
between the various elements of civilization. In surve^'ing the 
field of universal population that spreads over a myriad of climes, 
making up a world, it must be apparent to the interested observer 
that the field of progress has been disputed from the beginning, 
only to be acquired in the end b}' those elements of nationality 
which secured domination here and there hy means of force. The 
people who were subdued fell into despondenc}' and at length into 
slaver}^. 

It is not the purpose of the writer to delineate the advancement 
of the northern races that made progress in the work of civiliza- 
tion , or to decry the lassitude that enveloped the people of warmer 
climates who eventually became a prey to their more vigorous 
neighbors. The recognition of might in making right the 
will of those in power has done much in the direction of giving 
tA^-ants their swa}^, and of transmitting their authorit}^ to those 
who ma}^ arise in the line of heredity. Nations have been born 
and made to rule simply at the behest of adjacent power. Kings 
have advanced the rules of kingdoms by placing members of ro^^al 
families in control of provinces conquered by the work of war . 

In the advancement of power it has naturally followed that 
those who were weak fell into communities by themselves, and 
they became the prey of their more powerful neighbors. As far 
as they could they resisted predatory incursions designed to make 
vassals of captives; but the fact is indisputable that human 
slavery was born of captive people made prisoners from the 
circumstance of war. 

Once the existence of human slavery had gained a foothold 
within the domain of a powerful monarch, it was an eas}^ work for 
the navies of that monarch to spread the institution wherever 
there was a demand for labor. The slave trade sprang up and 
flourished at the will of potentates whose provinces were enrinched 
b}^ the products of slave labor. 

According to Chambers' Encyclopedia, which states the case 
ver^^ fairh', the negro slaver}' of modern times was a sequel to the 



10 A'AUGHAX'S PLEA FOK THE OLD SLAVES. 

discovery of America. Before that discovery African negroes, 
who were but races of savages, enskived their captives taken in 
war. That is to say, a successful tribe made slaves of its prisoners 
taken from an unsuccessful or weaker tribe. The Arabs, Avho 
were roving bands of merchantmen, made a regular trade in 
negroes who were captives of warlike expeditions. After the dis- 
coveries of Columbus, and those who followed in his wake, the de- 
portation of Africans to the plantations and mines of the New 
AVorld raised the value of captive negroes and gave to them a 
market value. Instead of putting captives to death, as had been 
the custom, thenceforward they were sold into slavery and shipped 
to North or South America or to adjacent islands. The Portugese, 
who possessed a large part of the African coast, began the work of 
importing negro slaves to America, and other seafaring nations 
quickly followed in the remunerative trade. England furnished 
her quota of merchants and merchant ships to carry on a business 
wherein traders made fortunes. No less than 300,000 slaves were 
conveyed under the British flag from the coast of Africa between 
the years 1680 and 1700, and between 1700 and 1786 the vast 
number of 610,000 were exported from Africa to the Island of 
Jamaica, a British province, to say nothing of the vast army 
thrust upon the British colonial possessions of North America. 

The British nation, that engaged so earnestly in the work of 
planting slavery on the soil of the New World, took an early part 
in suppressing the African slave trade and also in the work of eman- 
cipation. A societ}^ for the suppression of the slaA^e trade was 
organized in London in 1787. The parliamentary leader in this 
great work of humanity was AYilliam Wilberforce, who occupied 
about the sa^e relation to the British parliament of a century ago 
that A\"illiam E. Gladstone does to the parliament of to-day. The 
bill presented by A\^ilberforce, looking to the abolition of the 
slave trade, failed in 171)1. but under the leadership of Mr. 
Fox it subsequently became a law and was made operative 
after January 1, 1808. The United States followed Great 
Britain in the suppression of the slave trade. Other countries 
joined in suppressing the traffic. But Englishmen continued 
the nefarious work for a number of years under tlie protection of 
the flags of Ijoth Spain and Portugal. In 1811 the British parlia- 
ment, under tlie leadership of Lord Brougham, made participation 
in the slave trade a fchjii}', and in 1824 it was declared piracy, 
])i!riisli;ible witli death. 



vaughan's plea for tiik old slaves. 11 

Bat while this work of reform had been spreading over the 
world the slave traders of Great Britain had succeeded in planting 
the institution of slavery upon a firm basis in the British provinces 
of North America. Hence those colonies had been easily made the 
recipients of British rape upon the savage tribes along the coast of 
Africa. In this wa}^ American colonists, to whom large grants of 
land had been made in North America, became enriched without 
severe effort on the part of the grantees. English slavers poured a 
horde of African captives upon the American colonies and com- 
l^elled planters to bu}^ them as a condition of British protection. 
In 1618 the British ship Treasurer was engaged in the slave trade 
and landed African negroes from the mouth of the Congo river 
upon the banks of the James. The following year a Dutch man- 
of-war, sailing under commission of the Prince of Orange, landed 
upon the coast of Virginia a cargo of 14 negroes, and the next 
season a cargo of 39 souls was landed at Jamestown. These were 
placed on the market for sale, payable in tobacco, which seems at 
that time to have been the currency of the realm. An able-bodied 
African slave was sold for 60 pounds of tobacco, and the pur- 
chasing planter was supposed to have paid the full value of the 
lX)or negro's body and soul in the transfer. 

It was, perhaps, fort}^ years after the introduction of slavery 
into Virginia before the work of planting involuntary African 
servitude upon American soil was countenanced by acts of the 
Virginia colon}^. In 1662 an act was adopted in the Colonial 
Assembly of Virginia providing that slaves might be held as sub- 
jects of law. Previously to December 14, of that 3^ear, slavery 
existed without legal authority, ]but the sale of men and women, 
the separation of families and the helpless condition of children 
born in slavery induced a law regulating the sale of slaves; and 
perhaps that law remains unrepealed and in effective force to-day, 
save the fact that subsequent conditions may have annulled it. 

An exhaustive examination fails to furnish any data going to 
show that Virginia as a state made any revocation of laws 
adopted in ante-revolutionary ds^ys establishing colonial slavery. 
It was natural that olden laws should be accepted as part of the 
first constitution of Virginia, under the federal system, and that 
slavery should have been recognized as a state institution. 

The condition of African slavery existing in Virginia, in 
pursuance of colonial custom and law, naturally extended into the 
territorial dependencies of Virginia, and might have remained as 
an institution until emancipation came, but for the act of congress 



12 vaighan's plea for the old slaves. 

in 1787, which excluded slaveiy from the northwestern territory- 
ceded by Virginia to the United States. 

At the organization of the Federal Government the institution 
of slavery existed in all of the original thirteen states. It was 
not alone in the states south of Mason and Dixon's line that 
slavery was a fixed institution, but in the other commonwealths, 
which became partners of the South in resistance to the tyranny 
of King George, there were slaves held by the white inhabitants 
under authorit}^ of local law. By virtue of the first federal cen- 
sus, taken in pursuance of the constitution of the United States, 
and under the authority of George Washington, then serving the 
first presidential term of the new republic, we find the following 
slave population returned in 1790 — just one hundred years ago: 

Connecticut 2,759 

Delaware 8,887 

Georgia 29,264 

Kentucky ... 11,830 

Maryland 103,036 

New Hampshire 158 

New Jersey 11,423 

New York 21,324 

North Carolina 100,572 

Pennsylvania 3,737 

Rhode Island 952 

South Carolina 107,094 

Vermont 17 

Virginia 293,427 

Territorj'^ south of Ohio river 3.417 

Total 697,897 

It is thus made to appear that the people of the Federal States 
looked upon slavery as an established institution at the incipienc}^ 
of our Government, to be regulated with respect to commerce 
abroad and domestic security at home. Two-thirds of a million of 
slave people were recognized as a part of the people of the Fed- 
eral Government. From that day until the first proclamation of 
Abraham Lincoln, dated September 22, 1862, looking to the eman- 
cipation of the colored race from bondage, the existence of slavery 
as a national institution was recognized in law, and by the admin- 
istration in power at the seat of the General Government as a 
fixed institution of the new republic. The Northern States, one 
after anotlier, that looked ni)on the institution of slaver}^ in 1790 
as existing ])y recognition of the National Government, adopted 
acts of gradual emancipation which freed them from the stigma 



VAUGHAN's plea for the old SLAA'ES. 13 

of slaveiy early in the nineteenth century. Yet it is a fact that 
slaves were held in several of the states north of Mason and 
Dixon's line as late as 1840. 

The history of the warfare against slavery instituted by 
William Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips, Gerritt Smith, Horace 
Greeley and others of the old-time Abolition leaders goes to show 
that they never contemplated the forcible abolition of slavery. 
They looked upon it as an institution fastened upon the people by 
ancient colonial law, and they hoped to secure emancipation by 
making the institution repulsive to those who held slaves, and to 
appeal to their sense of justice for the obliteration of the lines that 
held black men in servitude . 

Even as late as August 22, 1862, when the war of the rebellion 
was in full blast, President Lincoln expressed himself to Horace 
Greeley in the following forcible terms: 

My paramount object is to save the union and not either to save or 
destroy slavery. If I could save the union without freeing any slave I 
would do it; if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and 
if I could do it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do 
that. What I do about slavery and the colored race I do because I believe 
it helps to save this union; and what I forbear to do, I forbear because I 
do not believe it would help to save the union. 

It will thus be seen that by the strongest friends of the colored 
race the question involved in the war of the rebellion did not 
contemplate the release of the slave from the bondage of serfdom . 
The idea paramount in the minds of the great men of the early 
war period contemplated no freedom for the slave, but merel}^ the 
making of him an instrument in the suppression of an armed 
rebellion and the salvation of a constitutional union of the states, 
without regard to the immediate effect which the saving of the 
union might have upon the status of the negro. All men in high 
places looked upon the negro as an unwilling factor in the govern- 
ment, forced upon the states bj^the ancient British rule; and in sav- 
ing the institutions planted upon this hemisphere by the fathers of 
the republic the condition of the negro had no part or parcel in 
the consideration of the men who sustained Abraham Lincoln 
during the early days of the rebellion. The circumstances of 
emancipation were compelled b}" the circumstances of war. 

It is known and admitted that President Lincoln had in con- 
templation, early in 1861, the appointment of Stephen A. 
Douglas to the command of the arm}- of the United States. Mr. 
Douglas at that date was willing to have slavery extended into 
free territory in case it was the will of tlie people; which, how- 



14 VAUGIIAX'S PLEA FOR THE OLD SLAA^ES. 

ever, he did not believe to prevail. But with his known and 
declared sentiments, had he lived, Mr. Douglas would most likely 
have been made commander of the union armies, and it is possible 
that he might have been the first declarent of slavery emancipation 
within the states. The circumstances of his surroundings would 
probably have pointed to him the line of duty as it appeared to 
Mr. Lincoln in the progress of a carnage which finally made an 
enslaved race free. 

The meager incidents in the career of African slavery already 
mentioned are sufficient in themselves to demonstrate that slav^ery 
was planted within the United States by force, and was continued 
under authority of law until emancipation was promulgated as a 
measure necessary to ensure the quelling of an armed rebellion. 
Emancipation was not a voluntary tribute to freedom, but was 
extorted by the circumstances of war, as a measure necessary to 
overthrow the power of insurgents against constitutional govern- 
ment. The men in authority at the time civil war began to rag« 
had no idea of making use of the negro as an agent in conquering 
the rebellion. When it became manifest that it was a necessity 
to make use of all the means which God and nature had placed at 
the disposal of duly constituted authority, in order that armed 
resistance against the government might be suppressed, then, and 
only then, was ,the president moved to make a proclamation of 
freedom to southern slaves. The person is not living, white or 
black, who will presume to assert that Abraham Lincoln was not a 
man of large heart, humane impulses and an earnest friend of 
liberty to all mankind. But as president of the republic he 
esteemed it his first duty to save the life of a nation, the govern- 
ment whereof had been committed to his hands. Mr. Lincoln was 
not alone in this view. Cabinet officers, members of both houses 
of congress, militar}- commanders in the field, and in truth nearly 
all the inhabitants of the loyal states accepted the same line of 
policy as the governing principle of the war into which the nation 
had suddenly plunged 

In the progress of the war it became the policy of the United 
States Government to enlist the services of negro soldiers as an 
element directly interested in measures which, in the end, led to 
the freedom of an enslaved race. it is perliaps true that the Con- 
federacy took the first ste^) in tlie direction of employing colored 
troops, and in this way set a wholesome example to the Federal 
authorities. AVhether tlie enlistment of colored troops for service 
in the Southern army contemplated the freedom of such soldiers 



vaughan's plea for the old slaves 15 

does not certainly appear. Had such freedom been promised, it is 
possible that a formidable army of blacks might have been re- 
cruited for the army of the South . But that negro soldiers were 
employed is pretty well established. The Charleston Mercur}^ 
noted, within a fortnight after the attack upon Fort Sumter had 
been made, that several companies of the Third and Fourth regi- 
ments of Georgia had marched for the theater of war in A'irginia, 
and that accompanying them was one company of negro soldiers 
from Nashville, Tenn., which had offered its services to the Con- 
federate States and had been accepted . In the early part of May , 
1861, a citizens' committee of safety at Memphis took steps to au- 
thorize C. Deloach, D. R. Cook and William B. Greenlaw " to 
organize a volunteer compan}^ composed of our patriotic free men 
of color, of the city of Memphis, for the service of our common 
defense." It does not appear that negroes held as slaves were 
asked to join the enterprise. Later on, February 9, 1862, there 
was a grand military review held in the city of New Orleans at 
which, according to the Daily Picayune, there were included 
' ' companies of free colored men , all very well drilled and com- 
fortably uniformed." It was further stated that these negro 
soldiers had supplied themselves with arms without regard to cost 
or trouble, unaided by the Confederate Government. On this 
occasion " a fine war flag " was presented to Captain Jordan of the 
colored troops, and in response to the presentation the colored 
commandant delivered " one of his most felicitous speeches." It 
was not stated whether the " fine war flag " was ornamented with 
the stars and bars or whether it was of some other design . It is 
also historically narrated that about February, 1862, able-bodied 
colored men — contrabands, so-called — were taken to Richmond, 
formed into regiments and armed for the defense of that city . It 
is also known that Gen. Mansfield Lovell and Gen. Ruggles, in 
command at New Orleans prior to the advance of Gen . Benjamin 
F. Butler upon that cit}", from the direction of the gulf, had in 
their command a regiment composed of fourteen hundred men of 
color . 

The fact of the enlistment of colored soldiers in the service of 
the insurrectionary states very probably had its influence upon the 
authorities at Washington, inducing the acceptance of negro 
troops in the Union service. At the beginning Mr. Lincoln hesi- 
tated in respect to his duty in placing arms in the hands of 
negroes. Others doubted the prudence of such a step, and it was 
the logic of circumstances rather than of deliberate design which 



16 a^aughan's plea for tpie old slaa^es. 

opened the way for the formation of negro regiments in support 
of the Union cause. In 1862 Secretar}' of War Cameron author- 
ized Gen. W. T. Sherman to accept the services of " lo3^al per- 
sons " who desired to aid in the suppression of rebellion in the 
vicinity of Port Royal. Gen. David Hunter very soon succeeded 
Gen. Sherman, and .he found the authority given his predecessor 
among the military papers upon the files of his office. Gen. 
Hunter interpreted the authorit}^ to accept the services of " loyal 
persons " in a liberal spirit, and thereupon proceeded to enroll a 
regiment of blacks, which he officered with white men of recog- 
nized military skill and abilit}^. The arming of the slaves in 
South Carolina opened a new feature in the progress of the war 
and occasioned manifest surprise in the halls of congress. The 
Hon. Charles A. Wickliffe, of Kentucky, introduced in the house 
of representatives a resolution of inquir}^ respecting the action of 
Gen. Hunter, which called forth a formal correspondence between 
Edwin M. Stanton, the successor of Mr. Cameron in the War De- 
partment, and the Hon. Galusha A. Grow, then Speaker of the 
House. The conditions which prompted the course of Gen. 
Hunter were fully stated and the action of the General was fully 
approved. In regard to the effectiveness of the colored troops 
thus brought into the service of the Union armj^ Gen. Hunter 
spoke in the highest terms of praise. He said; "The experiment 
Oi arming the blacks, so far as I have made it, has been a com- 
plete and even a marvelous success. They are sober, docile, at- 
tentive and enthusiastic, displaying great natural capacities for 
acquiring the duties of the soldier. They are eager be^^ond all 
things to take the field and be led into action, and it is the unani- 
mous opinion of the officers who have had charge of them that, in 
the peculiarities of this climate and countr}^, they will prove in- 
valuable auxiliaries, fully equal to the similar regiments so long 
and successfully used by the British authorities in the West India 
Islands." Gen. Hunter concluded his answer to Mr. Wickliffe's 
congressional resolution by sajdng that he hoped to be able to 
present to the Government from fort}— eight to fifty thousand of 
hardy, devoted negro soldiers by the next autumn. This fondly 
expressed hope was not realized, but of tlie gallant black soldiers 
who did enlist under the banner of the Union there were none who 
failed to do valiant service for a restored Union and in the cause 
of the freedom of their race. 

When Gen. Hunter's communication to Secretary Stanton was 
read before the House of Representatives, Congressman Dunlap 



vaughan's plea for the old slaves. 17 

offered a resolution of censure because of the sentiments expressed 
therein; but the resolution was not then acted upon, and reflection 
no doubt satisfied Mr. Dunlap of the unwisdom of his proposed 
censure. At least he did not again call the attention of the house 
to the subject. .While the censure was not voted, the important 
facts narrated by the distinguished soldier began bearing fruit in 
an unexpected quarter. Two senators of the United States called 
upon President Lincoln and proffered to him the services of two 
fully equipped negro regiments, which the president did not feel 
authorized to have mustered into the union service. One senator 
allowed his angry passions to arise, and very impudently told Mr. 
Lincoln that he hoped to God he would resign from the chief 
magistracy and let some man succeed him who had a little back- 
bone. The same senator was very glad to assent to the re-election 
of Abraham Lincoln two 3^ears later. 

A careful survey of the difficulties that surrounded the intro- 
duction of the despised black man into the office of a soldier gives, 
even at this late day, some idea of the prejudices which had to be 
overcome in order to save the union of the states from threatened 
dissolution. Thousands were precipitate and impracticable, and 
other thousands were diffident and impracticable. But in the 
meantime the negro stood ready to do his part; and although some 
statesmen were doubtful and hesitating, and others importunate 
and exacting, the subjects of solicitude were preparing to strike 
for the perpetuity of the government of their devotion. A 
thousand enthusiastic lovers of their own race, as well as of the 
flag they had known as the emblem of freedom to the white race, 
stood banded together in pursuance of Gen. Hunter's recognition 
of their right of enlistment ; and they succeeded in finding their 
way into the general military service under an emergency. Sec- 
retary Stanton wrote Gen. Saxton saying that ''in view of your 
command and the inability of the government at the present time 
to increase it in order to guard the plantations and settlements 
from invasion, and to protect the inhabitants thereof from cap- 
tivity and invasion by the enemy, you are authorized to arm, 
uniform and equip and receive into the service of the United 
States such number of volunteers of African descent as you may 
deem expedient, not exceeding five thousand," etc. That order 
enabled Gen. Saxton to get his waiting regiments into service. It 
enabled him to organize five other regiments. It deprived the 
rebellion of the direct support of the men who might otherwise 
have cultivated the fields and raised crops for the sustenance of 



18 VAliaiAX's PLEA FOR THE OLD SLAVES. 

Southern armies. It opened a new field for tlie negro, and cliarged 
him with a grand importance in crippling the power of the white 
master, and enabling the black serf to do his part in bringing an 
armed rebellion to final confusion and ultimate defeat. President 
Lincoln withdrew reluctantly from the position he originally 
assumed in opposition to the equipment of negro troops, and 
finally gave countenance to orders issued from the war department 
authorizing the formation of negro regiments. 

As a matter of history , it may be stated that before the date 
of accepting distinctive negro companies or regiments in the 
service of the union army, many colored men were enlisted in the 
service in their individual capacity, notably in eastern regiments. 
The state of Massachusetts, for instance, authorized such enlist- 
ments and received recruits from other states which were credited 
upon the quota of enlistments necessary to exempt the Old Bay 
State from the provisions of the draft laws enacted b}' congress. 
Colored volunteers were recruited in Indiana, and perhaps in- 
many other states, and sent to Massachusetts in order that they 
might be mustered into the union service without objection being 
raised on account of color. It has never been learned that those 
soldiers failed to prove less efficient, resolute, brave and daring 
than the most courageous and valiant of the white enlisted men . 

Throughout the south it was found that negroes flocked in 
numbers to union encampments, beyond the facilities of army 
officers to equip them for military service, as union troops ad- 
vanced into tlie heart of the Confederacy. Those who had been 
reared in the extreme south, or in the ver}^ center of the cotton 
belt, manifested an intense desire to take up arms in behalf of the 
union cause far in excess of the colored element along the border 
and in proximity to the free states. It required months of war 
and excitement to instill into the minds of those negroes, far re- 
moved from contact with northern men and northern sentiment, 
the fact that a military revolution was in progress that must 
necessarily terminate in a marked change touching their political 
relations. Once convinced, however, of the truth, the negro 
proved to be an important and willing factor in bringing final 
success to the union cause. 

As early as the month of June, 1862, negroes flocked to the 
encampment of Gen. Phelps, who had made his way into the rural 
regions of Louisiana. While resting from the fatigue of hurried 
marches and almost continual skirmish fighting, in the vicinity of 
Can-ollton, tlie General found his camp crowded daily with fresh 



* 

VAU(;lIA\'s I'LEA FOR TJIK OLD SLAVKs. 15) 

fugitives from the captivit}' of slavery. He could not support 
them in idleness, and a sense of the great work in hand forbade 
the return of the fugitives to the possession of masters from whom 
they had escaped. He therefore afforded protection to such a> 
manifested a willingness to shoulder a musket and endure the 
vicissitude of war as a recompense for personal libert}^. The con- 
dition of his surroundings was made known officially by (ien. 
French to Gen. Butler, who was then in command at New 
Orleans, and the propriety was suggested of recommending that 
the cadet graduates from AYest Point be sent into the Soutli to 
organize and discipline negro levies, so as to make them efficient 
soldiers for use in the pending war. Very clearly Gen. Butler did 
not like the suggestion. He advised the emplo3'ment of ''contra- 
bands," as he called them, for fatigue dut}-, but forbade their em- 
ploj'^ment in the capacity of soldiers. In writing to Gen. Butler, 
under date of July 31, 18G2, it will be found that Gen. Phelps 
said: "I am not willing to become the mere slave-driver you 
propose, having no qualifications that way." Thereupon he re- 
signed his commission and backed out of the war. 

It will be seen, in the circumstances just narrated, as well as 
in the diffidence of the president and others high in civil authority, 
that the ambition of the negro to fight for I lis freedom was handi- 
capped at almost ever}' point. .When the slaves found that a vig- 
orous prosecution of the war meant a speedy reduction of the re- 
volted states to the recognition of a supreme American Union. 
under which the permanent freedom of their race would have am- 
ple guarantee, their anxiety to take a hand in the great fra}^ was 
intensified in every quarter. Their appeals to do service forced a 
hearing in the halls of congress. The failure of the Army of the 
Potomac to capture Richmond, after seven days of blood-red car- 
nage, no doubt had a tendency in the direction of inducing con- 
gress to make use of all the elements at command which seemed to 
promise a speedy peace. To this end the Hon. Ilenr}' Wilson, 
chairman of the senate committee on military affairs, introduced a 
bill, July 16, 1862, empowering the President to accept all per- 
sons of African descent, for the purpose of constructing intrench- 
ments or performing camp service, or any war service for which 
they may be found competent! The peculiar phraseologj' of the 
Wilson bill gave color to the idea that, even as late as midsummer 
1862, the abilit}' of the negro to make a good soldier was seriously 
questioned by high authority in the senate of the United States. 
Most trulv the willing and anxious man of color had a hard time 



20 VAIGIIAX'S PLEA FOll THE OLD SLAVES. 

proving his right to fight tlie battles of liis country in a war that 
involved his own liberty and the freedom of all the people of 
his race. 

It was not until the winter of 1863 that official action was taken 
authorizing the enlistment of distinctively negro regiments. An 
order was issued by the secretary of war, January 26, 1863, au- 
thorizing Gov. Andrew, of Massachusetts, to raise two regiments 
of negro troops to serve two years. Accordingly the Fifty-fourth 
]\Iassachusetts was organized and equipped, and was mustered into 
the military service May 13, 1863, being the first complete regi- 
ment of negro troops called to duty in quelling the rebellion. It 
was ordered to proceed to South Carolina, but so great was the 
prejudice at the North against negro soldiers that the chief of 
police in the cit}^ of New York informed the war department 
that he feared the regiment would be subjected to insult in case it 
passed through that metropolis. However, his fears appear to have 
l)een groundless, as the regiment passed on its way rejoicing. 
About the same time Adjutant General Thomas personally took 
charge of the business of organizing negro regiments from among 
the contraband negroes gathered at and near military encampments 
along the lower Mississippi, and October 13, of the same year, 
Gen. Thomas authorized his assistant. Gen. E. D. Townsend, to 
issue a general order providing for the enlistment and equipment 
of negro troops. This was the first general recognition of the 
negroes to become soldiers of the republic at all times and in all 
places where recruiting was carried forward; and the third article 
of General Order No. 329 provided that "all persons enlisted into 
the military service shall forever thereafter be free." 

This was the first absolute proclamation of emancipation issued 
in the great civil war. Following its promulgation the enlistment 
of colored soldiers went forward with alacrity in every quarter. 
Witliin sixty days 2,300 negro troops were enlisted in New York 
city, and l)v December 4, 1863 (about fifty days after the issuance 
of (ien. Thomas' order) three full regiments of regulars had been 
mustered into the United States service at C*amp AVilliam Penn 
near Philadelphia. Subsequently six other regiments were 
recruited at the same place. From all quarters reports of enlist- 
ments of colored troops go to show that fully one hundred 
Lliousnnd men liad responded to the call of tlie country hy the 
r)))oning of tlie year 1864, and fully half that number had been 
mustered into service. Tliey stood witli guns in their hands ready 
to figlit for fi'eedom at the droji of a hat. 



vaughan's plea fok the old slaves. 21 

The histoiy of the great civil war is rich in its testimony of 
the patriotism of the negro and his devotion to the union cause, 
after he had learned the real purpose of the struggle and the gov- 
ernment had receded from its rigidit}^ against the emplo3'ment of 
colored troops for the suppression of the rebellion. The record 
made by the negroes entitles the race to grand recognition . By 
the time of Lee's surrender 186,017 had done honorable service in 
the union arm}^. Of this number the New England states fur- 
nished 7,916 troops; the three states of New Jerse}^, New Yorlc 
and Pennsylvania furnished 13,922; the western states and terri- 
tories furnished 12,711; and the southern states (including the 
District of Columbia, 3,269) furnished 108,755 good and true 
men. In this splendid record the army rolls record the fact that 
there were 13 colonels, 27 lieutenant-colonels, 42 majors, 25 (> 
captains, 292 first lieutenants and '479 second lieutenants. Evi- 
dently the negro got to the front as rapidh^ as circumstances 
afforded him an opportunit}-. 

In stating the obstacles that stood in the way of the negro race 
being able to don the blue, and wear it with honor, no reflection 
has been made upon the Government , which was slow to accept the 
service of armed negroes as soldiers of the republic. The presi- 
dent and his advisors merely followed a line of policy that was 
co-eval with the existence of the republic. Mr. Lincoln did not 
wish to place the colored race in a difficult position. On the con- 
trary his feeling was most kindl}^; but he found himself in an 
abnormal position. As the representative of an anti-slavery 
sentiment he was made president; but his election did not con- 
template more than prudent measures to prevent the spread of the 
slave institution. The abolition of slavery by means of federal 
encroachment upon state authority was an idea that had never 
entered his mind, and he would have rejected the thought with 
indignation had it been suggested to him as a measure of polic}^ or 
right. AVhen the time for universal freedom came he was read}' 
for the emergency, but he did not seek it. The war came on; Mr. 
Lincoln accepted the negro as an element that might be instru- 
mental in the salvation of the Union, and his confidence was not 
misplaced. Over nearly incomprehensible objections the negro 
became a soldier while the war was yet raging between the North 
and South. Now look to the record he made as a soldier. 

The first black regiment enlisted for the war was the First 
South Carolina, commanded b}' Col. Higginson. Its first material 
service was an expedition to the St. John's River country, in 



22 vaugiian's plea foe the old slaves. 

Florida, where it was met by sturdy resistance from soutkerm 
troops, intensified by a natural repugnance of southern white mea 
against confronting negroes with arms in hands. In all its 
skirmishes tlie South Carolina troops met with good success. In 
recounting the results of his expedition the Colonel commanding- 
said in every instance his troops came off with imblemished honor 
and undisputed triumph, and the men had even appealed to him 
for permission to pursue the flying enemy. His colored troops 
were brave even unto a fault. No wanton destruction was per- 
mitted, and no outrages occurred during the expedition. In his 
official report Col. Iligginson said: "No officer of the regiment 
now doui)ts that the successful prosecution of the war now lies in 
the unlimited employment of black troops." 

At the investment of Port Hudson, in May, 1863, the First 
Louisiana regiment, organized at New Orleans, under the direction 
of Gen. Butler, was given a prominent position. Col. Stafford 
addressed the troops saying: "Protect, defend, die for, but do 
not surrender the regimental flag." The color- bearer , Sergeant 
Planciancois, responded: "Colonel, I will bring these colors back 
to you in honor, or report to God the reason why." When asked 
if he could take a certain battery in an engagement of the war of 
1812, a brave American officer modestly replied, "1 will try, sir," 
and he took it. His historic words were not more brave tham 
those of Sergeant Planciancois at the siege of Port Hudson. 

In the official report of the reduction of Port Hudson General 
Banks said: "On the extreme right I posted the First and Third 
regiments of negro troops. The First regiment of Louisiana 
engineers composed exclusively of colored men, excepting the 
officers, was also engaged in the operations of the day. The 
l)Osition occupied by these troops was one of importance, and 
called for the utmost steadiness and bravery in those to whom it 
wasconflded. It gives me pleasure to report that they answered 
every expectation. Their conduct was heroic. No troops could 
be more determined or more daring. They made, during the 
day, three charges upon the batteries of the enemy, suffering very 
heavy losses, and holding their position at nightfall with the 
other troops on the right of our line. The highest commendation 
is bestowed ui)on tliem by all the officers in command on the right. 
Whatever doubt may have existed before as to the efficiency of 
<^)rganizations of this (character, tlie history of this day proves 
conclusively to those who were in a condition to observe the coia- 
«lnf't of these regiments, that the government will And in this 



VAUGHAX'S PLEA FOK THi: OLD SLAVES. 2S 

class of troops effective supporters and defenders. The severe 
test to which they were subjected, and the determined manner in 
which they encountered the enemy, leave upon my mind no doubt 
of their ultimate success. They require only good officers, 
commands of limited numbers, and careful discipline, to make 
them excellent soldiers." On the strength of the charges of the 
negro soldiers at Port Hudson upon confederate batteries, George 
II. Baker wrote and published a poem after the style of "The 
Charge of the Six Hundred," which fully rivals that noble pro- 
duction in excellency. 

At the Battle of Milliken's Bend, June 6, 1863, 3,000 
confederates attacked the command of Gen. Dennis, composed 
in the main of about 1,250 black troops. The latter lield their 
ground, and such was their heroism in action that their gallantry 
excited general commendation in union circles. Gentlemen 
connected witli the (Confederate service freely acknowledged that 
negroes, armed witli death dealing weapons and led by experi- 
enced commanders, constituted a soldiery that would challenge 
the admiration of the world. 

Along the coast of South Carolina, and to the southward, the 
naval victories of the union forces were aided in accomplishment 
by negroes, and might have been impossible but for the brave 
work of enlisted men of color who there made a record which has 
become imperishable. The soldiers who figured in these engage- 
ments were enlisted, in a large measure, pursuant to the directions 
of Governor Andrew, of Massachusetts, and direct communication 
was made witli the Governor touching the bravery of the troops 
he had put in the field in his capacity as governor of the state. 
It may be truly said that all official reports on record, of those 
engagements wherein negro soldiers participated, that a perfection 
of gallantry has been awarded to black soldiers who took up arms 
in the deep hour of their countr3^'s distress. 

Following the recognized success of the government in making 
perfect soldiers of men relieved from the bond of slavery, and of 
other colored men who had borne arms in the department of the 
south and in the region of country contiguous to the lower Missis- 
sippi river, the enlistment of colored troops was accepted as the 
l)olicy of the government in other fields of the great war. They 
participated in the later engagements of the Army of the Potomac, 
and largely composed the forces of Gen. Wild, who achieved a 
substantial success over Gen. Fitzliugh Lee in the battle of Wil- 
son's wharf. From the date of the introduction of colored soldiers 



24 VAUGHAX'S PLEA FOF THE OLD SLAA^ES. 

Ill the Arm}^ of the Potomac all opposition to the participation of 
sucli troops ill the war subsided, and the}^ were welcomed in all 
departments alike by officers in command and b}' their white com- 
rades in arms. In his official report of the engagement at Xash- 
ville, Gen. James B. Steedman said that fulh' twentv-five per 
cent, of the union losses were suffered b}' colored troops. He 
placed upon record the declaration that he was unable to discover 
that color made miy difference in the fighting capacit}- of the troops 
under his command. He remarked that white and black nobh' did 
their duty as soldiers, evincing alike cheerfulness and resolution 
in the discharge of duty. The antipathy of white soldiers against 
their black comrades in arms appears to have subsided under the 
pressure of mutual dangers and their joint struggles for the success 
of the union cause. 

The troops commanded by Gen . Birney in the East were largely 
inade up of colored enlistii^ents, and no part of the arm}- made a 
better record for gallantry or soldierh' conduct. Gen. Lorenzo 
Thomas gave cheerful evidence to the fact that in the western 
armies most heroic service was performed by enlisted blacks at 
Paducah and Columbus, Ky.; at Memphis, Tenn.; at Yicksburg- 
and Xatchez, Miss.; at the works around New Orleans; at the 
Bridge of Moscow on the Memphis and Corinth line of railway, 
and at the investment of Fort Pillow, where colored men were 
babtized unto freedom in rivers of blood. 

It is unnecessary to make special mention of the barbarity of 
the massacre of colored men at Fort Pillow further than to say 
that it has been condemned by the sense of the civilized world. 
It was inhuman in the highest degree. Gen. Chalmers, who was 
direct!}'- responsible for the butchery, appears to have been for- 
given for his merciless order of ''no quarter" b}' the black people 
of the south, inasmuch as thousands of them have repeatedly 
voted for his election to congress since the era of reconstruction ; 
l)ut there does not appear to have been unanimity among the col- 
ored voters in this respect, for the savage general has been regu- 
larly defeated at the polls in recent 3'ears. 

It is unnecessary to follow the colored citizen of the Fnited 
States furtlier than has been done in the preceding pages with a 
view of according to him gallantly in arms. The sentiment of 
tlie American people has, long ago, settled in the line of admission 
tliat the negro was a brave, cool and disciplined soldier in nil 
tlieatei's of the great civil war wherein lie had been afforded a fair 
Opporl unity for the development of his powers. 



VAUGHAX'S PLEA FOR THE OLD SLAVES. 25 

In civil life he has shown his capacity for self-government. 
In the senate of the United States II. R. Revels and Blanche K. 
Bruce, both of Mississippi, have given a good reputation to the 
colored people for a high order of abilit}- . The same ma}^ be said 
of Jere Haralson and J. T. Rapier, of Alabama; J. F. Long, of 
Georgia; C.E. Nash, of Louisiana; J. R. Lynch, of Mississippi;" 
B. S. Turner, of Xorth Carolina; R. II. Cain, R. C. DeLarge, 
R. B. Elliott, Joseph H. Raine}^, A. J. Ransier and Robert Smalls, 
of South Carolina; and J. T. Walls, of Virginia, all of whom have 
appeared in past years upon the floor of the house of representa- 
tives. Among the able diplomats who have reflected credit upon 
the American name abroad ma}^ be named Dr. Ilenr}^ Highland 
Garnett, Prof. J. Milton Turner, Ebenezer D. Bassett, John M. 
Langston (now in congress), John II. Smith, and the world 
renowned Frederick Douglass. In the affairs of their respective 
states a large number of the colored ^en have done the people 
good service as members of the state legislatures, north and 
south, and in many local positions. Prominent among the last 
named class ma}' be mentioned Sidne}^ B. Ilinton, of Indiana, who 
was elected to the office of Canal Commissioner by the general 
assembl}^ in 1873, and afterwards became a member of the house 
of representatives from the capitol cit}^ and count}^ of that state. 
When Mr. Ilinton was elected to the office of canal commissioner 
one of his confreres upon the canal board was Thomas Dowling, 
a gentleman of wealth and distinction, whose personal record had 
encompassed a generous portion of the early historj^ of the 
Hoosier commonwealth . Being approached b}" a small-f r}: politi- 
cian, whose aim was to badger Mr. Dowling upon the contingency 
that required him to recognize a colored man as his political 
equal, the diminutive politician said: 

•'I congratulate 3'ou, Col. Dowling, upon being obliged to sit 
upon the canal board as the co-partner of Sid Ilinton. How do 
you like a seat b}' a nigger an3'how ?" 

Col. Dowling instantly replied: "I feel complimented, sir. 
I have known Mr. Ilinton for twent}^ j^ears, and I am honored in 
being placed at his side above what I would have been had 3'ou 
been elected canal commissioner instead of him. While he has de- 
voted his time, talents and mone}" towards the elevation of his race 
3^ou have done 3'our utmost to drag 3'our race down.'' 

This interesting dialogue at once came to a conclusion, and 
Col. Tom Dowling was not again molested with an insinuation 
that he had been obliged to recognize the political equality of a 



TAITCIIAX S TLEA YOll THE OLD SLATES. 



(C 



nigger." Indeed it ma^' be said that similar reflections upon thf 
propriet;)' of complete justice being done to the African rac« 
speedil}'' died out when it became known that tlie negro was doing 
his utmost to merit tlie boon of freedom with which he had sud- 
denly become clothed. 

Even after more than a quarter of a century of freedom bestowed 
upon the men and women who were released from slavery by th^ 
direful arbitrament of arms, there is an influential and educated 
class of AYcU meaning people who seem to doubt the capacity of 
the negro for self government. If such a doubt can rightfully 
exist, it onl^' furnishes the most forcible reason that can possibly 
be assigned, Avhy the general government and the state govern- 
ments should exert every eifort at the command of the people, t<^ 
remove such a frightful disqualification from a mass of citizens in 
whose hands the ballot has been placed by the authority of the 
Federal Constitution. A free government can only be maintained 
upon a basis of general intelligence. The federal census, now 
being compiled, will probably show that the negro population ol 
the United States amounts to one-ninth of the entire inhabitancy 
of all the states and territories. The black race is increasing in 
numbers more rapidly, in relative strength in this country, than 
the Avhite race. AVith tliese facts confronting us it may be well 
to ask whether extraordinary measures are not absolutely 
demanded, looking to tlie lifting up in the scale of intelligence 
of a people who must continue to be a powerful fraction of our 
people for generations to come. Give to these men absolute 
justice. Pa3^ them a stipend of their earnings during the years 
of their involuntary service. Place before them the means of 
bettering their condition . When released from penury they will 
])e willing to accept a higher life, and to do tlieir part in sus- 
taining a government that has been just and fair to them. Give 
to them a measure of i)ension Mdiich is their national I'ight. 

During tlie i)reseiit yenr a deliberative body known as the 
"First Mohonk Conference on the Negro Question," assembled at 
Lake Mohonk and engaged in a solemn discussion of the negro 
problem. ]t was accorded to the negro, by all participants in 
debate, that he was no weakling, and that his future must be 
determined in a sense of strict justice. One of the orators, Rev. 
A. ]). ^layo, while assenting to the proposition that the neg*-o 
was radical in his views, went on to say that he was also a very 
politic member of the community, in the endurance of that whick 
he could not overcome, and in his tactful and even crafty appro- 



vaughan's pli:a for the old slaves. 27 

priation of all opportunities. He lias, as the reverend gentleman 
freely admitted, pushed in at every open door, listened while 
attending at the white man's table, hung about the church and 
huskings, taken in the celebration of the public occasion, and he 
has observed methods on election day even when he could not 
vote. He has been all eyes and ears, and even the pores of his 
skin have been open to the incoming of a practical education in 
life. Deprived, in a large measure, of the use of books, because 
of his inability to absorb their contents, and not possessing the 
ordinary apparatus of instruction, he has eagerly applied the cir- 
cumstances of actual life , as it has come before him , to the better- 
ment of his own condition ; and in very many respects he has 
made the application much more successfully than many of the 
*' superior race " who have not been obliged to contend with a 
life of servitude in their struggle for existence. The negro has 
been called a creature of imitation. All men are such, in a 
certain degree, but it must be admitted that in the case of the 
blackman his imitations have been vastly helpful to his personal 
condition . 

As the years pass by the resident negroes of the South , who 
were once slaves, will naturally become land-owners and the hold- 
ers in fee of the homesteads whereon they reside. Many of them 
will become men of wealth as some have already done. The suc- 
ceeding pages of this volume will indicate a few of many instances 
wherein the negro has raised himself from the cabin of slave days 
to opulence and high influence in church, school and state. As a 
class the southern negroes have no more idea of going to Africa 
than they have of undertaking a journey to the moon. Neither 
will they generally colonize into black communities, separate and 
apart from the white people. The}^ are inhabitants of the repub- 
lic, and by reason of habit and inclination they will remain in the 
land that has given them birth, and where home scenes and cus- 
toms attach them to their surroundings. It is a part of the duty 
which society owes to them that they should be liberally assisted in 
making their conditions harmonious and conducive to the general 
welfare . 

The conference at Lake Molionk might have done a great deal 
for the weal of the negro, and incidentally for the welfare of 
society, had the delegates discussed, in a calm and dispassionate 
manner , the propriety of giving to the emancipated slaves a pen- 
sion out of the plethoric treasury of the government. A discus- 
sion of means designed to benefit this class will find a responsire 



28 vaughan's plea for the old slaves. 

echo in the breasts of the black people beyond any high-flown 
resolutions respecting their moral condition or the supph^ of 
tracts and printed arguments upon abstruse questions. As the 
Lake Mohonk conference appears to be a permanent assembl}^, 
intended to have its annual meetings, it is very respectfully sug- 
gested that the next convocation shall devote its time to the 
discussion of practical questions. 

In his line of discourse Dr. Mayo justly remarked that the old 
slaves were Southerners in their feelings and instincts. They were 
nearly unanimous in their devotion to the union cause in a time of 
war, and are so yet. They always will be. But in this respect 
they do not differ from the white people of the South, in the 
present day, for the union sentiment is now universal. But the 
negroes are Southerners, just as the residents of Massachusetts or 
Connecticut are Kew Englanders or the inhabitants of Nebraska 
are western people. As the political issues of the past fade into 
the distance the negro race will, more and more, act in all public 
affairs with the leading race with whom their companionship and 
direct interest belong. With proper encouragement and education 
the man emancipated from slavery will rise to his proper place in 
our great American family. But let the nation be just to him as 
it has been just to the soldiers of the union . 

It is undeniable that the northern people who have organized 
societies and collected contributions for the betterment of the 
condition of the southern negroes, have looked to the enlargement 
of the religious elements, to which the contributors were denomi- 
nationally attached, rather than to the elevation of the negro as a 
man . The negro does not require aid in order that the Methodist 
church, the Baptist church or any other church may be made 
numerically strong. He simply stands before the country as a 
petitioner for justice. Against the law of God and of humanity 
he has been held in bondage, and a great civil commotion has 
made him a free man. He is willing to accept all the agencies that 
the churches may organize for his spiritual advancement, and, as 
far as his innate piety goes, to extend tlianks to the Almight}' for 
a safe guide unto a better life. But at the same time he stands as 
a suppliant for justice. Over the pages of more than tliree 
centuries of American history there has been written the curse of 
slavery, of which tlie black man was the cruel victim. His 
servitude begot that degree of watchful care which is inseparable 
from self-interest. AVhen tlie slave was sick he was provided 
with medical attendance; when lie was hungry he was fed; when 



vaughan's plea for the old slaa^es. 29 

his clothes became threadbare, new habits were provided; when 
the continual strain of drudgeiy became irksome and detrimental 
a holida}^ was given with all the enlivening appendages of jollity 
and abundant humor. In a word the interest of the master 
required the creature comfort of his slave to be considered as a 
matter of prime importance. With emancipation the master's 
care of self-interest ceased . The government righted a great wrong 
by turning out the old slave to starve and die! 

Instead of devising ways and means to secure the negro in his 
political rights, if these have ever been invaded, let the govern- 
ment of the United States take steps to habilitate the ex-slave 
with a sense of personal right which naturally attaches to his 
condition as a freeman, and to do that a reasonable recompense 
for the years of toil he suffered as a slave will be an act that will 
cast off much of this memory of his wrongs and will prove an 
incentive to the exercise of the duties and responsibilities devolv- 
ing upon manhood. The man who feels that his government has 
been just to him is not likeh^ to be inactive when the government 
points to an honorable service which he can perform in his 
capacity as a citizen for the honor of his country. Instead of 
quarreling and wrangling when he approaches the polls to deposit 
his l3allot he will go as an orderly citizen, meeting political 
friends and antagonists with equal composure and confidence, and 
with a heartfelt prayer that the best cause mny win. It is 
injustice that breeds bad feeling. A proper recognition of the 
claims of former slaves for pension b}' the government will 
obliterate the last trace of enmity that has resulted from our sad 
civil commotion and terrible appeal to arms. The north and the 
south will be a unit again. 

In this liastil}'- prepared SKetch it has been imperfectl}^ shown 
that negro slavery was planted upon Americon soil before the col- 
onies had dissolved their dependencj^ upon the British govern- 
ment. It has been shown that the parent government made the 
institutio]! of slavery a fixture against the wishes of the people of 
the colonies. It has been sought to be established that the negro, 
in the days of slavery, was generall}' a tractable and obedient sub- 
ject of his lawfully constituted masters. It has been set forth 
that, when the horrors of civil war began, a very large propor- 
tion of the negro slaves of the South felt disposed to espouse the 
cause of their masters, and many of them voluntarily engaged in 
acts of war in support of the rebellion. It has been the aim to 
make manifest the fact that when the black people became 



30 VArGlIAx's PLEA lOK THE OLD SLAVES. 

thoroughh' apprised that the advance of the union armies carried 
with it freedom to the slaves they fell into a support of the union 
cause with enthusiasm and stood read}^ to shed their blood under 
the stars and stripes. It has been made plain that the government 
was slow to accept the service of black men as soldiers of the 
republic, but that the3^ proved themselves equal to the occasion 
whenever the}^ were allowed to do service, under arms, in their 
country's cause. It has been proven that man}" of the race have 
demonstrated a high order of abilit}-, and that the}" have made a 
worthy record in Congress and in the diplomatic and consular 
service of the government. 

AV^hat the negro now requires is that kind of recognition which 
will give him an independence begotten of his former condition as 
a slave, wherein he performed his part nobl}' and well, so that his 
freedom ma}' proAC a blessing to future generations instead of an 
absolute curse. It is not questioned that great encouragement has 
been given negroes in providing means for their education and 
placing them in an attitude to assert their rights and do their duty 
as freemen . But this service to men made free under such circum- 
stances as surrounded the emancipation of Southern slaves falls far 
short of a just recompense to men who suffered generations of 
serAatude in consequence of no sin of their own commission. No 
act that can now be done will place the old slaves and their 
descendants in an attitude of equalit}', before the law, with those 
white men of the nation to whom the laws once gave the fruits of 
negro labor and the benefit of negro lives of unrecompensed toil. 

It is respectfully submitted to the laM-makers of the land that 
the hour has arrived when the men and women who have been set 
free without support, and without capital necessary to acquire 
such support, ought to be eared for. In the name of freedom, 
thousands, yea millions, were turned away from comfortable homes 
and sent adrift to provide for themselves. In how many instances 
were they old and poor? In their humble homes they said, one 
to another, when they found the blessing of freedom to be a pos- 
sibility for them and their children, "it surely must be the work of 
the Lord," and on bended knees many a devout lieart })rayed 
earnestly for deliverance. Those same pious souls, when deliver- 
ance actually came, returned thanks to heaven for the sense of 
liberty that pervaded the land and gave assurance to their own 
hearts that they were free men and women. They asked notliing 
more of their country in that day tlian the privilege of eating the 
bread that su})p(n-ted life witli a perfect knowledge that it was 



VAr(;iIAX's TLEA FOR THE OLD SLAVES. 31 

their veiy own, earned by toil to the fruits whereof no i)erson 
other than themselves could make a lawful claim. Such a thought 
was a new sensibility to a people whose lives had been in ceaseless 
subjection to a master's rule, and the}^ were quite willing to take 
up the burden of life without a complaint that they had no facili- 
ties in their new relations for the making of life enjoyable, or even 
tolerable. But because they accepted freedom with light hearts it 
cannot be said that the duty the government owes to its wards is 
an}^ the less sacred, and certainly that duty is not less obligator}^ 
after the lapse of a generation in consequence of the long and 
cruel dela}^. 

The theor}' is tenable, and will scarcely be questioned, that 
emancipation resulted as a military necessity rather than as a 
political or social benefit conferred upon the recipients as a meas- 
ure of justice and humanity. The slavery to which the negro was 
subject in ante-bellum days was hereditary, and founded in ancient 
error of government . But when that same negro became a nomi- 
nal freeman without provision being made for him to engage in 
the battle of life on a footing approaching something like equality 
with others who sell their labor in the general market, in order 
that they ma}^ acquire daily maintenance and reasonable indepen- 
dence, it must be apparent that he would suffer in the unequal 
contest . He has been kept in a condition of vassalage but little 
removed from the bondage formerly endured. He has been made 
the prey of man}^ heartless emplo3'ers, because of his ignorance of 
business methods, and of m3^riads of designing politicians because 
of his insufficient knowledge of political economj'. Give him the 
means of reasonable independence and half the evils that surround 
his present condition will be removed. In the bestowment of such 
a gift the government will only discharge a part of the obligation 
it owes for having made the negro a subject of taxation, like the 
beasts of the field, during his years of involuntary^ servitude. 

Since the da}^ of the surrender of Gen. Robert E. Lee at 
Appomattox, and the consequent knowledge that the freedom of 
negroes held in slavery before the war was assured by the failure 
of the Confederate States to maintain their existence as a united 
government , the question ' ' What dut}- does the United States 
owe to the emancipated slaves ? ' ' has received much thought and 
stud}^ on the part of the writer. Thoroughly impressed with the 
idea that the changed condition of freedmen demanded the protect- 
ing care of the federal government, it was a source of information 
to confer with men occupying eminent station in political affairs. 



32 VAUGHAX'S PLEA FOE THE OLD SLAA'ES. 

in conversation and by personal correspondence, so as to gather 
their views on this essential point. Aside from personal interviews 
a great many statesmen were addressed by letter. Very little 
satisfaction was imparted b}^ those who were addressed in their 
replies. In order to make this matter plain the following corres- 
pondence is inserted : 

HIS FIRST THOUGHTS IN THEIR BEHALF TWENTY YEARS AGO. 

In 1870, W. R. Yaughan, then a resident of Council Bluffs, 
Iowa, was called to Selma, Ala., his former home, to see his sick 
father, a farmer residing near that city, and while passing through 
Mississippi he wrote his wife the following letter: 

On the cars in Mississippi, July 10th, 1870. 
Mrs. Walter R. Vaughan, Council Bluffs , loiva. 

My Dear Wife: — I am quite tired and.it is very hot and dusty 
riding. I want to see you and our baby bo}^ Walter very much. 
Will write 3^ou a long letter from Selma, Ala. Our cars are filled 
with former Mississippi slaves. Some have a few dimes to pay fare 
to the next station, others are forced to beg car fare. But few of 
them are half dressed. The government should pension these ex- 
slaves if they would right a great wrong. They formerly had 
good homes, were well fed, were provided with the best medical 
attention in sickness, and since their freedom just the reverse has 
been their portion. I do feel so sorry for the poor unfortunate 
creatures. I shall feel guilt}'^, as an American, to the crime of 
enslaving them, vmtil the government has paid them the debt 
justly due. I will be in Selma at 10 a. m. to-morrow. Write. 
Affectionatel}^ 3^our husband, 

AY ALTER R. YAUGHAN. 

letter of appeal. 

Council Bluffs, Ia., Jul}^ 10, 1883. 
Dear Sir: The condition of persons who were once slaves, but 
were made free by the proclamations of Abraham Lincoln during 
the late war, and by the reconstruction of the civil governments 
of the states recentl}^ in rebellion, lias suggested to my mind that 
something more shoukl be done for those freedmen than merely 
declaring their personal liberty. Thousands of them have gone 
forth from homes of comparative comfort into circumstances of 
absolute penury. Of course the general declaration of freedom 
could not be hampered with the widespread conditions of indi- 
vidual.^ who came within tlie perview of Mr. JJncoln's proclama- 



vaughan's plea for the old slaves. 33 

tion, and hence an unconditional order of emancipation was a 
necessity and an act of right. 

It has occurred to me that the proper thing for the govern- 
ment to do in the premises would be the placing of all ex -slaves 
upon a civil pension list in a sum sufficient to enable them to live 
without fear of certain want in their old age. The government 
has suffered them to be taxed as chatties since its organization, 
and as such they have contributed directly to the public support. 
To right a great wrong the government can do no better , it seems 
to me, than to make them pensioners for the residue of their ex- 
istence, especially the aged and dependent. 

I should be glad to learn your sentiments touching the pro- 
priet}' of the course proposed to be pursued, with an^^ suggestion 
you may see fit to make in the premises. I have in view an 
elaborate discussion of the subject in a pamphlet or book. An 
early reply hereto will greatly oblige, 

Yours very trul}', 

WALTER R. YAUGHAN. 

Among others to whom the foregoing letter was addressed, it 
was mailed to the Hon. Benjamin Harrison, then a senator from 
the state of Indiana and now president of the United States. After 
a delay of something more than a month, the senator wrote as fol- 
lows from his home in Indianapolis: 

(See fac-simile letter on following page.) 



'ilCniba J^yiciiQ^ -Scnafci 

WA o i l mo TOM . D -.. c, (jM-04 /7 .188:^ 



^<Xir-C<5^ , o/ /i^-tc^tr-C^ .^ta-^ff-^ .,./C<Jl-L,-«-x.-t- .^^iT' 



^'^ e^^^^-^ Q,^.^/>Cc^ ^'^"t/.^^ 




VAIJUIIAN H VLKX FOR THE OLD SLAVES. 



35 



It can scarcel}" be said that Gen. Harrison touched the point at 
issue. Still his suggestion of educating the freedmen manifested a 
knowledge of their dependent condition. Unfortunately the major 
part of the race were much too far advanced in life to become the 
subjects of school-boy instruction . For the younger ones most of 
the states have liberally provided school facilities, and it is a pleas- 
ure to know that in the main the colored people of the southern 
states, of the present generation, have enjoyed fair benefits of 
education. 

A letter similar to the above, perhaps an exact copy, was 
mailed to Senator Preston B. Plumb, of Kansas. That gentleman 
furnished the following letter in repl}': 

FAC-SIMILE OF SENATOR TLUMu's REPLY. 

^tniieb ^iaieis ^enaie^ 



y^.^Az^^.^:^ ^ 




(2^ ^S^^e^^^.^-^ -^ 



^^^^^^J^A 




•36 



A'AUGHAX'S PLEA FOR THE OLD SLATES. 






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^^^ 







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-^^-;%-< 



^ ^i^^^t^ ^2-.-5^r^ 



^' 




The suggestion made b}' Senator Plumb that before any steps 
sliall be taken to provide pensions for "able-bodied people, who 
are quite capable of making a living," it is the duty of the gov- 
ernment first to lake care of its disabled soldiers, is scarcely perti- 
nent to the question under discussion. But as the soldiers have 
been well provided with pensions, especially the unfortunate class 
who suffered disabilities, there can be no room on that score for 
withholding from the men who endured 3'ears of slavery, without 
just cause, a recompense for the injustice they suffered for so many 
years. The further remark of the senator, that "if all govern- 
ments are to be held responsible for all damages resulting from the 
passage and execution of laws, the unfortunate tax-payer would 



VAUGHAN S PLEA FOR THE OLD SLAVES . 3 < 

be constrained to sell out," can scarcely have been well considered 
by liim. The laws by which a race of people were enslaved for 
hundreds of years certainly do not have a place by the side of 
statutes that have occasioned trivial injuries or losses. Besides, 
for inconsiderable personal injuries the courts have commonly 
found means of redress, and the losses suffered have been adjusted 
in countless instances. For the flagrant wrong of slavery the vic- 
tims have not been paid one cent. 

Another senator whose opinion was sought was the Hon. O. H. 
Piatt, of Connecticut. In answer Senator Piatt wrote as follows :. 

FAC-SIMILE OF SEXATOB PLATT's LETTER. 






V<W ^6^ ./t ^^2ouu.^ 



K 



e?C-Ci^>t„ ai-<./^ 



I^Q^ — ^ thCi^ ^<=o* /-^Rc^ A^y-t-U^ayv-i/LJ 
6-cU, U^.,Ji^ a^^ "^/^-^ CJ-m^ kJ ^ 

(f^i^ (9i^ S?-t^ (MA-^,^^ti7- 



38 vaugiian's plea for the old slaves. 

It will be plainl}' seen that neither of the gentlemen, the fac- 
simile of whose letters are given to the public in this volume, 
appear to have entertained a high admiration for the proposition 
to pension the ex-slaves. The tenor of their brief comments may 
properly be interpreted to be adverse to that proposition. 
Whether the advance of years may have affected an advance in 
the liberalitj^ and justice of their ideas remains to be seen, as they 
are all in high political station and may have a voice in the 
settlement of the question now formally submitted to an honest 
people through their representatives in the law-making branch of 
the federal government. 

Fully seven years having passed away since this great subject 
was brought to the attention of members of congress , and others 
eminent in public life, the writer was forced to the conclusion that 
the only way left open for him to pursvie was to prepare a bill 
setting forth the general purpose sought to be accomplished, and 
to procure its formal introduction into congress, in case a senator 
or representative could be found willing to have his name con- 
nected with a just measure having in contemplation a small per- 
centage of the compensation due from a great nation to a part of 
the human race it had held in slavery by the power of its gov- 
ernment, exercised in the enforcement of oppressive laws. 

In conversation with the Hon . William J . Council , representa- 
tive in the Fifty-first congress from the First District of Nebraska, 
that gentleman expressed his willingness to introduce the required 
bill and to take care of all correspondence that might come in his 
hands in consequence of such introduction. The writer esteems 
himself fortunate in having secured the help of Congressman 
Connell, which was accorded cheerfully. It is a pleasure to be 
able to say that Mr. Connell belongs to that class of public men 
who appreciate their relation to their constituents and who fulfill 
every respectable service required at their hands with assiduity if 
not real pleasure. In this instance the writer is happy in the 
belief that Mr. Connell is in full sympathy with the spirit of the 
measure he has laid before the house of representatives, and will 
do all that lies in his power to secure for it a fair consideration. 

The bill presented by Mr. Connell was drafted by the writer 
(W. R. Vaughan, editor of the Omaha Daily Democrat and 
president of the Democrat Publishing Company) , and the full 
text of the measure is as follows: 



A'ATTJIIAX'S PLEA FOR THE OLD SLAVES. 39 

A BILL for an Act to provide pensions for freedmen released from 
involuntary servitude, and to afford aid and assistance for certain persons 
released, that they may be maintained in old age. 

Prepared by W. R. Vaughan of Omaha, and introduced by Hon. W. J. 
Connell, M, C. from the First Nebraska District, by request. 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States, 
in Congress assembled : 

Section 1. That all persons released from mvoluntary servitude, 
commonly called slaves, in pursuance of the proclamation of ex-president 
Abraham Lincoln, dated respectively September 22, 1862, and January 1, 
1863, and in pursuance of amendments to the constitutions of the several 
states wherein slavery or involuntary servitude formerly existed, recog- 
nized by the federal constitution and laws of the United States, or by any 
law, proclamation, decree or device whereby persons once held as slaves 
or involuntary'' subjects, in consequence of race or color, or federal or 
state recognition of involuntary servitude, except for the commission of 
crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall be and 
hereby are made pensioners upon the bounty of the United States, and 
also such persons as may be charged by laws of consanguinity Avith the 
maintenance and support of freedmen who are unable by reason of age or 
disease to maintain themselves. 

Sec. 3. Any person who may have been held as a slave or involun- 
tary servant under and by reason of any law of the United States, or in 
consequence of any device or custom prevailing within such states or the 
United States, except for the commission of crime whereof the party 
shall have been duly convicted, and who shall have been released from 
such servitude in manner before stated, and who shall at the date of the 
passage of this act have reached the age of seventy years shall be entitled 
to and receive the sum of $500 from the treasury of the United States, 
hereby authorized to be paid out of any moneys not otherwise appropri- 
ated, and to the sum of |l5 per month during the residue of their natural 
lives. This provision shall apply to male and female alike. And all 
persons so released from servitude who shall be less than seventy years 
of age and of the age of sixty years or over, shall be entitled to receive 
the sum of $300, and also $12 per month until they shall reach the age of 
seventy years, when they shall be entitled to and receive the greater sum 
hereinbefore stated as a monthly payment. And all persons released 
from servitude as before stated who shall be less than sixty years old 
and of the age of fifty years or over shall be entitled to and receive the 
sum of $100 and also $8 per month, until sixty years old, when they shall 
receive $12. And all persons released from servitude as before stated 
who shall be less than fifty years of age, shall be entitled to and receive 
$4 per month until fifty years old, when they shall receive eight dollars. 
AH moneys herein authorized to be paid shall be dispensed from the 
general funds of the treasury, not otherwise appropriated. 

Sec. 3. Relations or others who may be charged with the support of 
aged or infirm persons released from involuntary servitude, in manner 
aforesaid, shall be entitled to and receive the monthly pension awarded to 
such aged or infirm persons in whole or in part upon showing to the satis- 
faction of the secretary of the interior that such support is afforded in a 
humane and becoming manner, the amount of such payment being 
under the control and direction of the secretary aforesaid. 

Sec. 4. The secretary of the interior shall have power to prepare all 
needful rules and regulations for the carrying into effect of the provisions 
of this act according to the true intent and meaning thereof, and to 
designate proper officers or agents through whom freedmen and other 
persons may make application for payment and receive moneys author- 
ized to be paid by the provisions of this act. 

Sec. 5. All needful rules and regulations for the carrying into effect 



40 vaughan's plea for the old slaves. 

of the provisions of this act shall be approved by congress before the 
takeng" into effect thereof. 

Sec. 6. The compensation of agents charged with the enforcement of 
this law shall be recommended by the secretary of the interior and 
approved by congress. 

Sec. 7. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after the 
first day of January, A. D. 1891. 

The '^Freedmen's Pension Bill," as it may be properly called^ 

was introduced in the house of representatives June 24, 1890. It 

was read twice (which appears to be the custom) and referred to 

the Committee on Invalid Pensions. The following telegram was 

received as soon as the bill was introduced : 



Washington, D. C, June 24, 1890. 
Hon. W. R. Vaughan: 

Your slave pension bill introduced and referred. Will send 
you copies as soon as printed. W.J. CONNELL. 

Congressman Connell's attention was immediately called to the 
fact that the bill should have been referred to the Committee on 
Pensions, and the following letter was promptly received: 

House of Representatives U. S., ) 

AYashington, D. C, July 17, 1890. j 
Hon. W. R. Vaughan: 

Dear Sir: I have before me your letter of the 8th instant ac- 
knowledging receipt of the copies of your Freedman's Bill, which 
I recently forwarded to you. You are correct in the statement 
that the bill has erroneously been referred to the Committee on In- 
valid Pensions. As you say, it should have been referred to the 
Committee on Pensions. I will at once have a change of reference 
made. As soon as this is done I will have a request made by the 
committee, in accordance with your suggestion, that the Secretaiy 
of the Interior furnish an estimate as to the probable cost to the 
government in carrying out the provisions of the bill. I will for- 
ward to you any references to the bill which I consider may be of 
special interest to you. 

Very truly yotirs. 




vaughan's plea for the old slaves. 41 

Possibly a reference to the Committee on Pensions, of which 
Representative DeLano is chairman, will secure a more readj- con- 
sideration of the bill, as it is generally understood that the Pen- 
sion Committee is not so burdened with business as the Invalid 
Pension Committee. Moreover, the claimants under the Freed- 
man's Bill can scarcely be rated as invalids, except in those 
instances where they were soldiers and received disabilities b}'^ rea- 
son of wounds or disease. In such cases tlie}^ would be pensioned 
as soldiers, but not because of their long service in bondage. 

Of course there is a disposition to make light of this proposi- 
tion in view of the "vast expense," according to the criticism of 
public prints . That expense will be less than 33 per cent, of the 
cost to the government of the great civil war, and from that heavy 
debt the country is emerging at the rate of 1140,000,000 a year. 
Already the millionaires, and men of control in wealthy banking 
institutions, are howling at the prospect of the early payment of 
the national debt and there being left no means behind whereupon 
bonds may be predicated for the continuance of their pet institu- 
tions. It is respectfully suggested that justice to the negro might 
prove a panacea for the woes they have in such serious contem- 
plation. What a pity it would be to let the poor millionaires fail 
of an opportunity to turn an honest penny. 

THE CAUSE IS JUST. 

Many of the metropolitan newspapers are owned by millionaires 
and they have attempted to burlesque the bill, claiming that the 
money requiring to pension the ex-slaves would bankrupt the gov- 
ernment, etc. But hundreds of letters have been received hy Mr. 
Council and the author of the bill commending it as a measure of 
justice. As Congressman Council expressed himself in the follow- 
ing letter on the subject of the cause being just, we tak@ the 
liberty of reproducing his letter: 

^See fac-simile of letter on following page.) 



J^X^:^^:^^ 







VAUGHAX'S PLEA FOR TIIK OLD SLAVES. 43 




^-^ 



^^ ^ ^>/ 



The specimen letter to which Mr. Connell made reference in 
the foregoing communication was from Benjamin O. Jones, Esq., 
a gentleman of prominence in Southern Illinois, and was couched 
in the following terms: 

Metkopolis, xLL., Jquc 27, 1890. 
Hon. W. J. Connelly Washington^ D. C: ■ 

Deak Sir: Allow me to congratulate you upon being the first 
man, in Congress, to take the initial step towards an act of justice 
to the ex-slaves of our country. Many thousands of slaves were 
thrown upon their own resources as a result of the war, and at a 
period of life when they were unable to learn the great problem 
of how to win bread. They have for years — those who survived — 
eked out a wretched existence at the hands of charity , unable to 
learn how to make a living. Many still survive in poverty, the 
inmates of our poor houses and other charitable institutions, or 
go among us as gaunt images of famine, a reproach to the govern- 
ment that made them freemen. Their condition was made 
wretched by the act of emancipation . They were taken away from 
abundance and turned out of their homes to starve. The}^ helped 



44 VAUGIIAX'S PLEA FOR THE OLD SLAVES. 

to develop the resources and wealth of this country, and thej 
ought to enjo}' some of its blessings. The}^ should not be allowed 
to fill paupers' gra.A^es or to seek at the hands of charit}^ the com- 
monest necessities of life. I am a white man, was raised in the- 
slave state of Kentucky, and I desire to thank you for your noble 
courage and humanit}- in presenting this bill, in this prominent 
manner, to the consideration of the Congress of the United 
States . 

AVho would not prefer the dangers of a soldier's life to the tor- 
turing immolation of a life of slaver}' ? Let us pension the old 
ex-slaves. I have advocated it on the stump, and I congratulate 
you that j^our position enables you to speak to more people and 
with greater effect. Please send me a copy of your bill. 

Trul}' and sincerely , 

BEKJ. O. JONES. 

Hundreds of letters from the white and colored citizens of the 
South have also been received, and the folloAving is a fair sample 
of the southern sentiment as to "'Yaughan's Freedmen's Pension 
Bill," for which reason it is reproduced: 

SOUTHERN SENTIMENT . 

Sherill, Ark., July 12, 1890,. 
W. R. Vaughan, Esq., Editor and President Omaha Democrat: 

Dear Sir: B}^ accident, one of your valuable papers has fallen 
into my hands. Though, I guess, from the name, it is democratic 
in politics, yet it has the true ring of right and justice. I herein 
enclose subscription for dail}' and Sunday for one month, and in- 
tend to take it longer. I am a true blue republican, a colored 
man and an ex-slave. I am truh^ glad to see that there is one 
democrat that is a true friend from his heart to the negro that 
has been for years imposed upon. As for myself, I care not 
whether I get a cent from the government or not, as I Avas liber- 
ated when quite young, and am liale and hearty and able to take 
care of "me and mine." But justice should be done to the older 
ones, at least, who were turned loose at an old age, without educa- 
tion, homes or money, and broken down in health, unable to make 
a support, thrown upon the charity of a cold world — paupers. 
You and Congressman Connell, of your state, have enlisted in a 
humane and commendable cause. Whether 3'ou succeed or not, 
your names will be revered by the dusky sons of Africa as true 
friends of our race. The news of such a measure pensioning ex- 
slaves has S])read among them like wildfire, and the}' are now 



VAFGHAX'S PLEA FOR THE OLD SLAVES. 45 

watching with eager eyes, and listening with attentive ears, to see 
who their friends are, whether democrats or republicans. Both 
parties tell us that the}' are our friends. AYell, we will wait and 
see. AYe will watch their votes. Now is the time and opportu- 
nity to prove friendship . The democratic party should vote for 
the measure , not because the negro is its ally , for he is not , but 
because it is right and just. The republicans should support it 
for the same reasons, except the negro has been with them ever 
since Mr. Lincoln's proclamation. 

The southern congressmen should support the bill for another 
reason beside justice, but because nine-tenths of the money will 
come south, and as most all of the merchants and land owners in 
the south are whites , of course it will circulate amongst them . But 
we fear that for this reason my part}' (the republican) will defeat 
it. AVe hope not. In this matter of right and justice bath par- 
ties should put themselves on record unanimously in favor of the 
bill. Yours, S.P.HAYLS. 

The letters of Mr. Jones and S. P. Havis given above in full 
a:-e inserted in these pages rather than an}' of the very many 
others which have l)een written upon the subject of the Freedmen's 
Pension Bill. They commend Congressman Connell, who has 
taken the initiative in the work of justice towards an impover- 
ished race, in his character as a representative of the people, and 
by Mr. Connell referred to the writer of these pages. The fact is 
fully appreciated by the writer that courage, determination, and 
very possibly the expenditure of a good deal of money will be 
necessary in order to accomplish the great task now self-assumed. 
The aid of such a man as AY. J. Connell, and of others who will 
give to him their confidence and support, will assist in the accom- 
plishment of a work of reformation in governmental abuse which 
now warps the American character, as an avowed exponent of full 
find complete justice towards all men. The words of commenda- 
tion spoken and written to the author of the Freedmen's Pension 
Bill, would fill a fair sized volume; but the publication of all of 
these would be but a repetition , in substance of the candid words 
and views expressed in the communications of Mr. Jones and Mr. 
Ilavis. 

If the writer could appeal to the better sentiment of the 
persons who make up the Commbns of Great Britain, and to the 
men of liberal sentiment in that country , he would appeal to them 
to give their encouragement to an enterprise looking to a decent 
compensation to the sons and daughters of the race of human 



46 VAUGHAX'S PLEA FOR THE OLD SLATES. 

beings who were forced upon English colonists as slaves, years 
and years before American freedom from British domination was 
contemplated by even the most far-seeing and resolute of the 
American people. But such an appeal would propabh' be in vain. 
To the emancipated men and women of the recent slave states, 
however, it may be well enough to say: "Bear in remembrance 
the fact that 3'ou were not made slaves b}^ the will of the people of 
the states that held you in bondage from your birth to the day 
of your liberation. You came to those people by inheritance. 
The institution of slavery was planted, nurtured and grew into 
power in American states under the authority and domination of 
the English nation when that power owned and ruled this land." 

PKOGKESS OF ANTl-SLAVEKY SEXTIMEXT. 

In another part of this volume it has been shown that the 
original importation of slaves into No'rth America was the work 
of British merchants and traders, who forced the institution of 
slavery upon the colonies in viola':ion of the protests of the 
colonists, who were averse to the establishment of the institution 
of slavery in their midst. Eecurrence is had to this historical 
fact with a view of showing that there has always been a strong 
and able sentiment in opposition to the institution of human 
slavery ; and that its apologists have been influenced b}^ consid- 
erations of personal interest, coupled with an inability to make 
free the slaves , and to settle suitable provision for their sustenance 
upon the subjects of emancipation when made b}' masters to such 
as constituted their personal estate under the laws of those states 
where they severall}^ resided . 

From the best records obtainable it appears that British adven- 
turers first engaged in the Importation of African slaves in the 
year 1562, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and that the 
scheme was undertaken for mercenary purposes. After Sir John 
Hawkins had made a profital)le trip between the coast of Africa 
and the West India Islands, liis monarch sent for him and 
upbraided him for engaging in an inhuman traffic ; one that was 
"detestable" and would certainly "call down the vengeance of 
heaven." Altliough promising his queen not again to engage in 
a traffic in liuman flesh, he once more made a successful voyage to 
iVfrica, and returned with a cargo of Xegroes who were impressed 
into slaver}'. Iliirs Naval Histoiy tells us of Sir Jolin Hawkins' 
second expedition, that " liere began the horrid practice of forcing 
Africans into slnvci-y. nn injustice and l)arl)arit3' which, so sure as 



yai:ghax's plea for the old slaves. 47 

there is a vengeance in heaven for the worst of crimes, will some 
time be the destruction of all who allow or encourage it." 

For two hundred years the slave trade was continued as a 
source of profit, and in the mean time it became firmly rooted 
upon the territor}^ of the English colonies, and also upon the 
soil in possession of the governments of France and Spain. 
During all this period there were brave men who fought the 
iniquity with valor and determination. But like prudent men 
they did not seek to turn the world upside down at a single 
stroke. The}^ directed their efforts, first towards the suppression 
of the slave trade, next to the prohibition of slavery extension 
upon free territory, and finally to the direction of the abolitioi^ of 
the institution itself. 

Among the early enemies of the slave trade, and incidentally 
of human slaver}^, may be reconed Richard Baxter, the author of 
Baxter's Saints' Rest, and other works, of a christian and 
devotional character,' who published a periodical known as the 
'•Negro and Indian Advocate." In the columns of his paper he 
took the ground that they who go out as pirates and take away 
African subjects or the people of any other land, who have never 
forfeited life or liberty , and make them slaves and sell them , are 
the worst of robbers, and ought to be considered as the common 
enemies of mankind. He went further and declared that they who 
buy them and use them as mere beasts for their own convenience, 
regardless of their spiritual welfare, are fitter to be called demons 
than christians. 

At a later da}' Dr. Primatt published a lecture entitled a 
'•Dissertation on the Duty of Merc}^," in which that eminent 
divine spoke of the institution of African slavery in the following- 
scathing terms: "It has pleased God to cover some men with 
white skins and others with black; but as there is neither merit 
nor demerit in complexion, the white man, notwithstanding the 
barbarity of custom and prejudice, can have no right by virtue of 
his color to enslave and tyrannize over the black man. For 
whether a man be white or black, such he is by God's appoint- 
ment, and abstractly considered, is neither a subject for pride nor 
an object of contempt." 

In 1735 Dr. Atkins, a surgeon in the British navy, published 
an account of a voyage made by him to Guinea, on the west coast 
of Africa, and thence to the West Indies and Brazil. He 
describes vividly the methods pursued b}' slave dealers of sup- 



48 vaugiian's plea for the old slaves. 

ph'ing their vessels with their cargoes of human freight, by kid- 
napping, b}' false accusations and pretended trials, and every 
nefarious device known to avarice and cupidit}^. In his account 
he details the cruelties practiced upon the native Africans by 
white men, who were British slave traders; and he proceeds, while 
exposing their cruelty, to answer their staple argument, by which 
the}^ maintained that the condition of the Africans was improved 
by their transportation to other countries. 

Edmund Burke, the famous British statesman, in his account of 
the European settlements planted in America, placed upon record 
his observation that " the negroes in our colonies endure a slavery 
more complete, and attended with far worse circumstances, than 
what any people in their condition suffer in any other part of the 
world, or have suffered in any other period of time." 

In the year 1766 Bishop Warburton preached a sermon before 
the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, in which he dealt 
with slavery and the slave trade with an unsparing hand. He 
said : "From the free savages (the Indian tribes) I now come to 
the savages in bonds. By these I mean the vast multitudes yearl}^ 
stolen from the opposite continent, and sacrificed b}^ the colonists 
to their great idol , the god of gain . But what says these wor- 
shipers of Mammon? ' They are our own property which we offer 
up I' Gracious God! To talk, as of herds of cattle, of rational 
creatures, endowed with all our faculties, possessing all our 
qualities but that of color, our brethren both b}^ nature and grace, 
shocks all the feelings of humanity, and the dictates of common 
sense. But alas! what is there in the abuse of society which does 
not shock them? Yet nothing is more certain in itself, and appa- 
rent to all, than that the infamous traffic in slaves directly 
infringes both divine and human law. Nature created man free, 
and grace invites him to assert his freedom. In excuse for this 
violation it has been pretended that though these miserable out- 
casts of humanity have been torn from their homes and native 
country b}^ fraud and violence, yet they thereby become the 
ha[>pier, and their condition more eligible. But who are you, 
wlio pretend to judge of another man's happiness? Of that state 
wliich eacli man, under the guidance of his Maker, forms for 
liimself, and not one man for another? To know what constitutes 
mine or your happiness is the sole prerogative of Him who created 
U-, and cast us in so various and different moulds. Did your 
slaves ever complain to you of their unhappiness amidst their 
native woods and deserts? Or rather let me ask, did they ever 



vaughan's plea for the old slaves. 49 

©ease complaining of their condition under you, their lordly- 
masters, where they see indeed the accommodations of civil life 
but see them pass to others, themselves unbenefitted by them? 
Be so gracious, then, je petty tyrants over human freedom, to let 
your slaves judge for themselves, what it is that makes their own 
happiness, and see if they do not place it in their return to their 
own country, rather than in the contemplation of your grandeur, 
of which their misery makes so large a part ; a return so passion- 
ately longed for, that despairing of happiness here, that is, of 
escaping the chains of their cruel task-masters, they console them- 
selves with feigning it to be the gracious reward of heaven in 
their future state." 

Besides the captive Africans who were brought direct from 
their native shores to become serfs in the New World there were 
divers ways in which the institution of slavery was promulgated 
and fastened upon the pioneer settlers of nearly all the lands in 
the western hemisphere. To follow in detail these methods would 
be to write a volume equal in extent to tbe Holy Scriptures. 
But through all the vicissitudes of the poor negroes, who were con- 
stantl}^ made the hewers of wood and the drawers of water for the 
white race, as the settlements of North and South America and 
adjacent islands increased, there were heard the voices of good 
men protesting against the wrong of slavery in the abstract and 
the horrors of the slave trade in particular . Among the noble 
men of England who interested themselves in their day for the 
betterment of the condition of the slaves, who became conspicuous 
by their determined opposition to the slave trade, may be 
mentioned Granville Sharp, who was instrumental, in 1772, in 
carr3dng the case of a slave, taken by his master from Jamaica to 
England, before the court of the Kings Bench, and there procured 
the decision of the judges " that as soon as ever any slave set his 
foot upon English territory he became free." Immediately after 
the trial Mr. Sharp wrote to Lord North, then principal minister 
of state, warning him, in the most earnest manner, to abolish 
immediately both the trade and the slavery of the human species 
in all the British dominions, as utterly irreconcilable with the 
principles of the British constitution and the established religion 
of the land. 

Another powerful advocate of the national rights of man, 
appertaining to the black as well as the white race, appeared in 
the person of John Wesley, the celebrated divine. In 1774 this 
pious man took up the cause of the enslaved African race. He 



50 VAU(iHAN's PLEA FOR THK OLD SLAVES. 

had been to America and had seen and pitied the hard condition 
of the slaves within the colonies of the mother country. He 
published a work entitled " Thoughts on Slavery," which exerted 
a salutary influence upon the public mind in riviting the convic- 
tion that slavery was wrong, the slave trade abominable and that 
both ought to be exterminated. 

The Quakers of America early manifested a deep and com- 
passionate feeling towards slaves within the American colonies, 
although many of them became possessed of slave property upon 
their settlement in this country. But it must be said of them that 
they treated their slaves with great kindness. Notwithstanding 
their mildness toward them, and the consequent content of the 
slaves themselves, some of the society began to entertain doubts 
in regard to the right of holding negroes in bondage at all. 
Almost a century before the visit of John Wesley to America 
some of the German Quakers, who had followed William Penn to 
America, urged in the 3^early meeting of Pennsylvania, the incon- 
sistency of buying, selling and holding man in slavery, with the 
principles of the Christian religion. At a later date the yearly 
meeting for that province took up the subject as a public concern, 
with the result that the society declared against the future impor- 
tations of African slaves, and the members were charged to be 
particularly attentive to the spiritual and temporal welfare of 
those held in possession. For a series of years this solicitude was 
renewed in the annual meetings, in fact being continued until the 
instfi-ution of slavery had practically disappeared within the^ 
province of Pennsylvania. 

In the year 1772 a favorable disposition towards the condi- 
tion of the slaves became manifest in several of the colonies. The 
House of Burgesses of Virginia of that year presented a petition to 
the King of Great Britain beseeching his majesty to remove all 
those restraints on his governors of that colony which forbade 
their assent to such laws as might check that inhuman and 
impolitic commerce — the slave trade. It is a remarkable fact that 
the refusal of tlie British government to permit the colonists to 
(exclude slaves from among them by law, was afterwards enumer- 
ated by Thomas Jefferson among tlie public reasons for separating 
from the mother country after the war of the revolution had 
broken out. 

In Mr. Jefferson's " Correspondence," there appears a fac-simile 
of a ])ortion of the original draft of the Declaration of Independ- 
ence, Avhich was stricken out of that document when it was 



V-VrGIIAX's PLEA FOR THE OLD SLAA'LS. 51 

adopted in committee. The gentlemen selected in congress to pre- 
jDare a formal document setting forth reasons why the colonies 
should become free and independent states, were John Adams, 
Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman and Robert 
R. Livingston. To Mr. Jefferson was assigned the important duty 
of preparing the form of the declaration. In his draft, submitted 
to the whole committee, appears the following: 

He (King- George III. Of England) has waged civil war against human 
nature itself, violating the most sacred rights of life and liberty in the per- 
sons of a distant people, who never offended him; captivating and carrj-- 
ing them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death 
in their transportation thither. This piratical warfare, the opprobrium 
of infidel powers, is the warfare of the Christian King of Great Britain; 
determined to keep open a market where men should be bought and sold, 
he prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to 
prohibit or restrain this execrable commerce; and, that this assemblage 
of horrors might want no fact of distinguished dye, he is now exciting 
those very people to rise in arms among us, and to purchase that liberty 
of which he has deprived them, by murdering the people upon whom he 
has obtruded them, thus paying off former crimes, committed against the 
liberties of one people with, crimes w^hich he urges them to commit against 
the lives of another. 

It does not appear in Mr. Jefferson's works why the foregoing 
indictment againt the English crown was stricken from the im- 
mortal declaration, or which member of the committee moved its 
expurgation. His wish not to reflect upon an}" of his co-patriots 
in an hour of emergenc}^ no doubt prevented any personal refer- 
ence to men on that solemn occasion. But all Americans know, 
and the world knows, that Thomas Jefferson was a sincere devotee 
of personal as well as collective liberty, and when he penned that 
other great truth, which stands in the Declaration of Independence 
as accepted, approved and signed in the colonial congress, that 
" all men are born equal and endowed by their Creator with cer- 
tain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty and the pur- 
suit of happiness," he meant the negro slave to be included side 
by side with the white master, whose freedom was acknowledged 
by all the world. 

The facts set forth in this narrative amply demonstrate that 
there was a strong sentiment both in p]urope and America looking* 
to the curtailment of the slave power, which readil}" found expres- 
sion in the Declaration of Independence, though not in the posi- 
tive form that Mr. Jefferson desired. It is, however, enough to 
know that when the cradle of American freedom was rocked our 
patriot forefathers gave utterance to sentiments respecting uni- 
versal liberty that included all races of men regardless of color. 



52 yaughan's plea for the old slaves. 

From that da}' to the present there have been earnest men who 
have contended sincerely for the abridgment of slaver}- in every 
land. 

Soon after the close of the revolutionary war the efforts of 
Wilberforce and the noble men who agreed with him in opinioa 
secured the settled opposition of Great Britain to the continuance 
of the African slave trade. The adoption of the Constitution of 
the United States was the direct means of prohibiting the lawful 
introduction of impressed slaves into this countr}", and of putting 
an estoppel upon the trade altogether after 1808. 

In the mean time President Jefferson concluded negotiations 
with jS'apoleon Bonaparte whereby the territory of Louisiana was 
purchased, which included nearl}^ all the territory- belonging to the 
United States, after the date of the purchase, lying west of the Mis- 
sissippi river that gave early promise of seeking statehood within 
the Union . The cession of the Northwest Territory to the United 
States had been accompanied by an agreement in the congress of 
the confederatioQ prior to the adoption of the constitution that 
such territory' might be erected into seventeen states , when the pop- 
ulation would admit of the formation of new states. Mr. Jefferson 
was chairman of the committee charged with framing an ordinance 
for the government of this vast area ; and during the session of 
1784 he reported such an ordinance which contained the following 
rule: 

That after the 3^ear 1800 of the Christian era, there shall be neither 
Slavery nor involuntary servitude in any of said states, otherwise than in 
punishment of crimes whereof the party shall have been convicted to be 
personally guilty. 

The rule was not then adopted, but in the last congress of the 
confederation Nathan Dane, of Massachusetts, reported an 
ordinance, Jul}^ 11, 1787, for the government of the territory of 
the United States northwest of the Ohio river, in which the 
Jeffersonian interdiction of slaver}- was repeated, and it then re- 
ceived concurrence. All the great northwest was thereafter dedi- 
cated to freedom and became free soil. 

It naturally follows that when the Louisiana purchase was made 
there was a strong feeling manifested to extend the Jeffersonian 
proviso to that territory. Unfortunately slavery existed therein 
before the purchase, and it could not be eradicated. But the agi- 
tation continued; and when the inhabitants of Missouri formed a 
stale governnieut, the same being a part of the Louisiana purchase, 
and applied for admission into the Union, during the month of 
Marcli, 1818, the fact tliat the constitution of the new state recog- 



VAUGHAX'S PLEA FOR THE OLD SLAVES. 53 

nized slavery caused the beginning of a fierce agitation which con- 
tinued with more or less violence for nearly half a century. Mis- 
souri was not successful in her application at that time. In the 
next congress, ]S^ovember 16, 1820, Missouri again knocked for 
admission. The debate that ensued was long, fierce and acrimo- 
nious; but it was finally terminated February 27, 1821, by the ad- 
mission of Missouri in pursuance of a compromise, which provided 
that in the erection of future new states those lying north of the 
parallel of 36° 30'' should be free states, and those lying south of 
that parallel might be free or slave as the people should elect. 

The acceptance of the Missouri Compromise settled the status 
of slaver}^ extension for thirt}" years. In 1850, when California 
applied for admission, the whole question of slavery extension was 
opened up, and with reference to the territor}'- acquired from 
Mexico at the conclusion of the war with that government. Four 
years later the formation of territorial governments for Kansas and 
Nebraska revived the anti-slavery agitation with great bitterness. 
The repeal of the Missouri Compromise fired the northern heart to 
an extent that was not quieted again . The agitation was continued 
unceasingly and finally culminated in the election of Abraham 
Lincoln on a platform opposed to the acceptance of additional 
slave states in the Union. The civil war followed, and afterwards 
emancipation followed as a natural result. 

The purpose of this imperfect review has been to show that 
there has always been an able and educated element in this coun- 
try opposed to the bondage and oppression of the negro race, and 
that throughout the vicissitudes in the career of the black man as 
a slave, he has had powerful and eloquent champions, pleading 
with earnestness and fervor for his release from the galling chains 
of involuntary servitude. At last the da}^ of freedom dawned in 
an unforseen and inexplicable manner. It came amidst the crash 
of systems that had been maintained in this land for three hundred 
years. It came in the din, the smoke and the carnage of battle. 
It came in a torrent of human blood, and through the havoc of 
mighty armies. It came as the will of Almighty God who selected 
this devastating agency to let the oppressed go free . 

It is scarcely necessary to say that thousands of the men of the 
South would have willingly emancipated their slaves long years be- 
fore the tocsin of war was sounded, but they were deterred there- 
from in consequence of their pecuniary inability to set them up in 
life and make suitable provision for their maintenance in the first 
months or years of their struggle for existence. When emancipa- 



54 VAlCiHAN's PLEA FOR THE OLD SLAVES. 

tioii was confirmed in the dread circumstance of war and subjuga- 
tion, there was nothing to do but to accept the inevitable, and to 
recognize the fact that human slavery was a doomed institution 
for all the years of coming time. The men and women who were 
baptized in blood unto freedom went forth owing allegiance to 
none . 

While blessing the day that has wiped out the curse of slavery 
from the escutcheon of our fair land , it is sad to contemplate that 
the wards of the nation are in a worse state to-day, so far as the 
personal comfort of thousands and tens of thousands of them are 
concerned, than they were in the days of their servitude. This is 
especially true of the old and infirm. In the hope that the gov- 
ernment, which our fathers created and their sons here preserved, 
will dare to be just in defiance of obloquy, prejudice and ridicule, 
this humble appeal is made to those in place and power, for justice 
to the race that has been liberated from bondage, only that they 
may live in want and misery and die at last in nakedness and dis- 
tress. Let the government be just. Generosity is not asked nor 
sought. Do what is right, and let the world know that the 
stars and stripes constitute the emblem of a nation that has the 
courage to correct the errors of ages. Let the spirit of the 
Yaughan ex-slave pension bill become the law of the land . 

As a fitting finale to this petition for the rights of the slaves 
of olden days the following editorial from the columns of the 
Omaha Daily Democrat^ of Sunday, August 13, 1890, is copied. 
W. R. Vawghan is president of the Democrat Publishing Company. 

BE JUST AND FEAR NOT. 

There are plainly those in political as well as in journalistic life who 
fear to discuss with fairness the provisions of Vaughan's Freedmen's 
Pension bill; and all such seek to underrate its importance by the idle 
•declaration that it is a temporary expedient in government policy that 
will die under the breath of ridicule. A half century ago the same flimsy 
excuse for an argument was used by the public press and by political 
orators when James G. Birney entered the political arena as the candidate 
of the liberty party for the presidency. It was asserted that the meager 
support which Mr. Birney received in 1840 — he had but little more than 
7,000 votes in all the states — would deter the Garrison school of aboli- 
tionists from maldng another exhibition of their weakness, and that they 
would be glad to retire from public view never to expose themselves to 
familiar gaze again. But alas for human expectation when based upon 
nothing at all! The movement inaugurated by Birney, Garrison and their 
compatriots had substantial merit, and it gained accessions as the cause 
was discussed. In 1844 Jomes G. Birney was again a presidential candidate 
and in that year he was given 62,000 votes, being considerably more than 



VAUGHAN's plea for THK old SLAA'KS. 55 

the plurality which James K. Polk received over Henry Clay. The liberty 
party began to be a noticeable feature in the affairs of the nation. 

In 1848 Van Buren and Adams, under the name and guise of the free- 
soil party, received 291,000 votes in the several states. This was merely 
the old abolition party under a new name. The antipatiiy against the 
institution of slavery continued to spread, and finally culminated in the 
success of the republican party and in the emancipation of the slaves 
under the influences of a condition of war. Less than a quarter of a cen- 
tury after Birney and Garrison flung the banner of universal freedom to 
the breeze the institution of slavery had ceased to exist in the length 
and breadth of our fair land. 

History, as Mr. Lincoln once said, is merely repeating itself. The 
demand for pensions in behalf of the former subjects of slavery is so fair 
and just that no opposition to the fundamental idea can weaken its merit; 
and attempts at ridicule will only give it a firmer hold upon the sense of 
justice entertained by a fair-minded people. In the face of weak preten- 
sion toward expression of contempt it will grow by day and by night until 
it has taken such deep root in the public mind that the law-making power 
of the United States will be glad to give it heed and obedience. In the 
poetic language of Charles Mackey it will become 

"The Voice of the Times." 

" Day unto day uttereth speech — 
Be wise, oh ye nations, and hear 
What yesterday telleth to-day — 

What to-day to-morrow will preach. 
A change cometh over the sphere, 
And the old goeth down to-day. 
A new light hath dawned on the darkness of yore, 
And men shall be slaves and oppressors no more. 

" Hark to the throbbing of thought 
In the breast of the wakening world; 
Over land, over sea it hath come. 

The serf that was yesterday bought, 
To-day his defiance hath hurled — 
No more is his slavery dumb — 
He's broken away from the fetters that bind. 
And he lifts a bold arm for the rights of mankind. 

"The voice of opinion hath grown — 
'Twas yesterday changeful and weak — 
Like the voice of a boy in his prime. 
I To-day it hath taken the tone 

Of an orator, worthy to speak — 
Who knows the demand of his time! 
To-morrow 'twill sound in the nation's dull ear 
Like the trump of a seraph to startle our sphere. 

" Be wise, oh ye rulers of earth! 
And shut not your ears to his voice, 
Nor allow it to warn you in vain. 

True Freedom, of yesterday's birth. 
Will march on its way and rejoice. 
And never be conquered again. 
This day hath a tongue — aye, the hours have speech — 
Wise, wise will ye be if ye learn what they teach," 



56 VAUGHAN's plea for the old SLAA'ES. 

A question has arisen as to the history and character of the 
man who is willing to devote his time and means to the promulga- 
tion of a law that will do justice to the negro, without fee or re- 
ward to himself. That man is not ashamed of his name or of 
his public record, as far as he has one. 

The following biographical sketch of 

WALTER RALEIGH VAUGHAX 

was published in the Omaha Daily Democrat of Sunday, June 
20, 1890. 

Since the appearance of the article given to the public last Sunday 
morning, proposing a pension to freedmen restored to liberty from a 
former condition of involuntary servitude, a large number of letters have 
been received from all quarters of the union, asking concerning the 
antecedents of ex-Mayor Vaughan and requesting a statement of the 
manner of man he is. In answer to these interrogatories a brief 
biographical sketch is given and a portrait of the man. 

Walter Raleigh Vaughan was born in Petersburgh, Va., May 12, 1848. 
His parents moved to Montgomery, Ala., when the subject of this sketch 
w^as about one year old. His mother died in his second year, and at her 
request the babe was sent to reside with an uncle in North Carolina, the 
Rev. R. C. Maynard, who was a minister of the Methodist Episcopal per- 
suasion. At the age of thirteen years young Vaughan returned to his 
father's home in Alabama. 

From his early boyhood Mr. Vaughan became interested in labor and 
economic questions growing out of the condition of the laboring classes, 
upon whom his young eyes were naturally turned, white and black alike. 
Perhaps his first effort in the direct interest of the negro slave was made 
when, as a half-grown lad, he appealed to his father to give the negroes 
in bondage the half or the whole of Saturday of each week, to be used as 
his own time for private work or personal recreation. In all the later 
avocations of life Mr. Vaughan has contributed time and money whenever 
any important movement has been on the tapis in promoting the move- 
ments and wishes of the working classes. As an official and as a news- 
paper publisher, as well as in the private walks of life, he has advocated 
and aided the cause of labor and the aims of the men who have earned 
their own subsistence. 

At the close of the war of the rebellion young Vaughan entered the 
Crittenden commercial college of Philadelphia, where he received a 
business education. He then took up his residence at St. Joseph, Mo., 
from whence he came to Omaha early in 1868 and booked himself as a 
guest of the old Herndon house at the foot of Farnam street, now the 
headquarters of the Union Pacific railway company. After a brief 
sojourn he located at Council Bluffs, Iowa, where he opened a business 
college. In that city. May 12, 1869, being the twenty-first anniversaiy 
of his birth, he was united in marriage with Miss Delia De Vol, daughter 
of one of the oldest residents. 

In March, 1881, Mr. Vaughan was elected mayor of Council Bluffs, 
rumung as the regular democratic candidate, by a majority of thirty-six 



vaughan's plea for the old slaves. 57 

votes. In the meantime he had been actively engaged in business, a por- 
tion of it devoted to journalism, for which profession he has always had a 
penchant. In 1884 he was again elected mayor over a strong competitor 
by a majority of 538 votes. While serving as mayor, Gov. Larrabee, of 
Iowa duly appointed and com.niissioned him as one of the state curators, 
which position he resigned to remove to Omaha. 

During Mayor Vaughan's first term in the mayoralty an unpre- 
cedented flood occurred in the Missouri river and all the lowlands were 
flooded and many families ruined by the devastation. Mayor Vaughan 
came to their rescue, had them gathered in boats from their flooded quar- 
ters and had them provided with food and other necessaries. As his term 
was about expiring, the well-remembered strikes were taking place in 
Omaha, wherein an old man named Armstrong was bayonetted by a sol- 
dier without cause or provocation. Mayor Vaughan at once sent a letter 
of condolence to the widow, together with a warranty deed to a residence 
lot in Council Bluffs, where the lady could make her home after her cruel 
bereavement. 

During the second term of his mayoralty, in company with Mr. 
Thomas Officer, steps were taken to establish the Thompson-Houston 
electric light system in Council Bluffs, the twain being sole owners. 
Later on, with Mr. J. C. Regan for a partner, Mr. Vaughan secured a char- 
ter and established the electric light system of Omaha. His whole life 
has been checkered with business enterprises, having their ups and downs, 
but through all Mayor Vaughan has been steadfast in his adlierence to the 
rights of the working classes. 

After retiring from the mayoralty of Council Bluffs, IVIr. Vaughan 
resumed his residence in Omaha, in which city he has had the general con- 
trol and management of the Omaha Daily Democrat. In his capacity as a 
journalist he has now revived a project conceived by him years ago to 
have congress grant proper pensions to ex-slaves, whose early lives were 
made the subject of barter by citizens and taxation by the government. 
On this subject he carried on an extensive correspondence with public 
men seven years ago. Among them with President Harrison, who was 
then a senator from Indiana. None of the parties addressed appeared to 
view the project with favor. But, steadfast in his faith and in his belief 
in what he has conceived to be right, Mr. Vaughan proposes to go on in 
the line marked out until justice shall be done to a downtrodden people. 
It is only a question of time when his efforts shall succeed. An era differ- 
ent from being made the hewers of wood and the drawers of water for de- 
signing politicians is about to dawn upon the oppressed negro race. It 
will be an era of substantial prosperity. 

As to the personality of W. R. Vaughan, it may be added that he was 
not a soldier during the late war, being then too young to bear arms. His 
father and three brothers were, however, gallant soldiers in the southern 
army. After the war of the rebellion had closed, his elder brother, Ver- 
non H. Vaughan, was made secretary of Utah territory, at the request of 
Robert M. Douglas (son of the great Stephen A. Douglas), then private 
secretary of President Grant, and later United States marshal in North 
Carolina. The appointment was made by President Grant. When Gov. 
Shafer, of Utah, died, the president telegraphed the appointment of V. H. 
Vaughan to fill the vacancy without waiting to be officially informed that 



58 A'aughan's plka fou the old slaves. 

an appointment was required. G o vernor Vaughan died in later years m Cali- 
fornia. Mr. W. R. Vauglian is now in his 42d year, is the father of five 
sons and three daughters, all healthy, handsome children, and they are 
heart and soul with their father in his work for justice. 

It is proper to saj' that since arriving at man's estate W. R. Vaughan 
has devoted much time and money in the upbuilding of benevolent and 
fraternal institutions. He was Noble Grand Arch of the United Ancient 
Order of Druids for the State of Iowa, and Grand Prelate of tlie Knights 
of Pythias organization for the same state, and he gave years of his best 
work to increase the powers and benefits of Odd Fellowship in the west, 
having been a patriarch since the age of 21 years. 

Mr. Vaughan has a surviving brother, Alonzo Vaughan, now residing 
near Selma, Alabama. He has large landed interests in that vicinity and 
a-lso conducts a mercantile business. 

Let the writer make a closing appeal to the Christian people 
and the Benevolent orders of the United States by asking you 
to read 

WHY THE IREEDMEN's PENSION BILL SHOULD BECOME A LAW. 

1. It will be a measure of recognition of the inhumanity 
practiced by the government in the holding, for a century, of 
men and women as slaves in defiance of human right. 

2 . It will be a slight recompense to emancipated freemen for 
the error of the government in permitting slavery to exist on the 
soil of a people whose fundamental idea is the liberty of the 
citizen . 

3 . It will afford to foreign nations a complete refutation of 
the sentiment, often advanced, that American Freedom has been 
merely a disguised form of tyranny whereof human slavery was 
an exemplification. 

4. It will manifest to the civilized world the important truth 
that the Sons of the Fathers of the Republic associate liberty and 
justice together as inseparable in the administration of a govern- 
ment of the people. 

5. It will afford a guaranty to other nations, struggling for 
popular independence, that the real strength of a free people lies 
in their ability to do right at all times and under all circumstances. 

6 . It will add to the material wealth of a great nation by 
giving to persons having a claim de jure against the government 
to put themselves in a position of complete equality before the 
law with other citizens whose personal rights have not been 
circumscribed . 

7. It will enable an impoverished race, reduced to penury 
through no fault of their own, to place themselves in a position of 



vaughan's plka for the. old slaves. 59 

reasonable independence in their struggle for existence and 
recognition in general business affairs. 

8 . It will add to tlie national wealth of a productive section 
of the Union by enabling an important factor of its population 
to pursue business without constant appeals to public charity. 

9. It will distribute a large addition to southern capital 
among a class of inhabitants who have been debarred hitherto 
from contriT3uting to the general welfare of their section. 

10. It will enable the emancipated race to contribute to the 
prosperity of their several states and to pursue avocations denied 
to persons wholly dependent upon their daily toil for support. 

11. It will have a tendency to break down a residuary sense 
of race oppression which may have been fostered by means of a 
-condition of dependence but a shade removed from the former 
condition of slavery. 

12. It will remove the last barrier existing between the 
races which has made political solidity an objectionable feature in 
the political affairs of any section of the Great American Eepublic, 
and in coming years the thought of a solid North or a solid South 
will not have a shade of sectional support. 

13. It will be the duty of public men, it is hoped, occupying 
•every station of life, whether in the Senate or the House, whether 
the president or governors of states, whether judges of courts or 
fittorneys at the bar, whether bankers or managers of great corpo- 
rations of every class, to ask themselves whether this claim of 
one-tenth of the population of the United States ought to be dis- 
regarded , and whether any country can continually prosper that 
suffers injustice to such a large part of its people. 

As you should be judged by the future generations of your 
countrymen, and finally by the All Wise Arbiter of human ac- 
■counts, you are adjured not to turn a deaf ear to the petition now 
made in behalf of a misused and selfishly derided race, which has 
been emancipated from bondage only to be wedded to lives of 
ignorance and a condition of penury bordering upon starvation. 
In the name and hope of that justice which ought to animate the 
hearts of all true men , let the appeal sink deep into your minds , 
to the end that you shall heed the call made upon you to encour- 
age an earnest support of the Freedmen's Pension Bill. *'Asye 
would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them." 

WALTER R. VAUGHAN. 




FREED, UNEDUCATED, NO MONEY AND NO FRIENDS— RAGS AND POVERTY 

HIS PORTION. 



MEN OF MEKIT. 



In the foregoing pages it has been intended to show, in as briei 
a compass as may be considered consistent with a proper delinea- 
tion of the general character of negroes as citizens, something oi 
their fealty to their masters in the days of slavery, their devotion 
to the cause of liberty when they found the way opened for them 
to become freemen, their success in life when thrown upon their 
own resourses, their heroic bravery in the Union cause when mus- 
tered into the Federal service in the capacity of soldiers , and their 
honorable reputation as statesmen in cases where colored men have 
been called into the political field. To this it might have been 
added that very many of them have risen to distinction in the 
Christian church and in the field of letters. But this branch of 
the subject may be fittingly discussed in a series of brief biograph- 
ical sketches of men who have achieved distinction in their capacity 
as freemen after having been liberated from the bonds of slavery. 
Before entering upon the narration of individual cases it may 
be proper to say that almost every community of the South has 
within it some person who ought to rank as a hero, but who 
is unknown to fame because there has been a desire to enjoy the 
blessings of domestic life rather than to engage in a calling that 
Would bring an individual into public notice. Very many of the 
emancipated slaves have discovered decided financial ability, and 
they have accumulated large wealth. Mr. Montgomery, who was 
trusted slave of Jefferson Davis, under the old regime, and who 
oCted as his quarter's agent in very many important commercial 
U-ansactions, accumulated an extensive property after he became a 
freeman , and was widely known as an enterprising and successful 
planter. Pie is but one of many whose talent ran in the line of 
trade and traffic. The instances of slaves made freemen, with no 
resources but the talents which God gave to them, but who have 
acquired a competency , would fill a large volume . 

Recently the writer was much interested in perusing a news- 
paper sketch of a negro lad in Mississippi, who attracted the atten- 
tion of his mistress by marks of natural shrewdness, and the lady 
conceived the idea of his being made useful to her in other lines 
than in a life of drudgery , provided he possessed a fair degree of 



62 vauctIiax's plea for the old slaves. 

cultivation. 81ie thereupon devoted a short time eveiy morning- 
in teacliing the boy to read. He was apt in learning, and in a 
comparative!}^ short time he had acquired the rudiments of a fair 
English education, with no other instruction than such as his mis- 
tress was able to impart. AVhile conditions w^ere as stated the 
civil war broke out. The adult white members of the famil}^ in 
which the 3'oung negro was held as a slave, three in number, all 
entered the Confederate army, and in the vicissitudes of the war 
they all fell. To^vards the close of hostilities the old plantation 
suffered from the incursions of contending armies, and became the 
prey of foraging parties on both sides. Tribute was levied first by 
the one and tlien by the other. In a season of ruthless devastation 
the improvements upon the plantation w^ere destroyed by fire. 
Peace came, but the old mistress was impoverished — nothing re- 
maining to her except her barren acres. These were mortgaged 
in a hopeless struggle to improve the place and begin life anew; 
but the effort was fruitless, and the mortgage, in due time, ate up 
the land. The plantation passed under the hammer. In some 
manner the slave boy of former years learned that his old home 
was to be sold, and that his kind mistress was about to meet the 
cold charity of the world as a beggar. Like thousands of others 
of his r.ace he had enlisted in the Union service, and after discharge 
he had been engaged in a struggle for fortune, and liad been moder- 
ately successful. He turned his face toward the old plantation and 
arrived at the count}^ seat in time to attend the sale. As if 
divinely ordered he became the successful bidder, and the place 
whereon his eyes first belield the light of day became his property 
in fee simple. His next step was to hunt up liis old mistress and 
to minister to her comfort. She had relatives living in Virginia 
and the desire of her heart seemed to be that she might be able to 
reach them and to die amidst the scenes of her childhood. Her for- 
mer servant provided the means, and the lad}^ returned to her na- 
tive state. The bright boy she had taught to read became a planter 
on the estate w'here he had once toiled as a slave. He rebuilt the 
houses, raised his crops and prospered in the new life. Every 3'ear 
he sent a handsome donation to his former mistress, which he in- 
creased in amount as his circumstances improved. The young man. 
became very wealthy, buying other plantations, and giving em- 
ployment to man}' of his former fellow-slaves. He still lives and 
is rated to be worth a half million of mone}^. His old mistress is 
also living, made comfortable in her old age b}^ the munificence of 
the man who once ranked as one of her chattels. Every month this. 



YAUGHAX'S PLEA FOR THE OLD SLAVES. 63 

kind-hearted freedman sends liis old mistress a clieck for one 
hundred and fifty dollars, and he will continue to do so until 
she is called to the better land. 

This incident has been related at length for the reason that it 
affords a good illustration of that genuine love which is an inherent 
part of the negro character. Unquestionably there are to be found 
throughout the South thousands of such instances of unselfish de- 
votion on the i^art of the ex-slaves for the surviving members of 
the families of their old-time masters. The truth of such an as- 
sumption is rendered highly probable by one circumstance that ad- 
mits of no dispute. The great mass of the ex-slaves have remained 
within near approach to the scenes of their former servitude . They 
do so from a dislike to break up and destroy the associations of 
early years. Of course there has been a great shifting of scenes on 
the part of many; and in some instances mammoth emigration 
associations have been organized of those who have sought new 
homes in distant states and territories. But the number who 
sought new locations probably amounts to no more than ten 
per cent, of the emancipated people. 

The humble w^alks of life furnish as many evidences of great 
hearts among the southern f reedmen as may be shown by those who 
have risen to eminence in church and state. But being unknown 
it is not an easy matter to do them that degree of justice which 
their gratitude and devotion are entitled to receive. In this re- 
spect the Negro stands side by side with the white man. Of the 
Anglo-Saxon races, and, indeed, of all races of men, it is the emi- 
nent few who are named in histor}^, while the humble many run 
their course and go to the grave unknown, unhonored and unsung. 

But for the purpose of manifesting the progress which the 
Negro has made under very trying circumstances, a brief review 
of the lives of some of the noted men of the race, will be in 
order . 

From the beginning it has been the purpose of this little volume 
to confine its narration to those persons of color , in the main , who 
have been the subjects of slavery within the United States, with a 
view of exhibiting their heroism in rising above the rule of oppres- 
sion, that was their birthright, and of the years of their early lives. 
There have been many free men of color who were never held as 
slaves who have been an honor to their race, but these scarcely 
come within the line of this discussion. 



64 vaughan's plea for the old slaves. 

crispus attucks. 

In a former part of this volume it has been shown that at the 
time of the foundation of the federal constitution all of the states 
held slaves except one. Prior to that date, in colonial days and 
before the old French war, slaves were held in all communities 
settled by immigration from Europe. About the year 1723 there 
was born of a slave mother in the colony of Massachusetts the 
subject of this sketch, Crispus Attucks. Like all men possessing- 
natural aspirations for liberty, Crispus Attucks chafed under the 
rule of slavery and longed to be free. When he was 27 years old 
he managed to escape from his master at Farmington, the date of 
his escape being September 30, 1750. He has been described as a 
finely developed man, of a bright yellow complexion, six feet two 
inches in height, broad shouldered and in every respect an 
athlete. He had learned to read, for at that time the education 
of a slave was not entirely forbidden . His master advertised for his 
recovery, offering a reward of ten pounds sterling for his capture. 
As it was presumed he would try to go abroad in some sailing 
vessel all masters of such vessels and others were cautioned 
"against concealing or carrying off said servant on i^enalty of the 
law." But the caution was useless, for Crispus Attucks made 
good his escape and was not captured. 

His biographers do not tell us whether he went to sea or 
fled to the forests, or how he managed to survive, but it is 
certain that the soul-born love of freedom which he cherished was 
not quenched. He was ready to fight for liberty, and if need be, 
to die for the cause, not for himself alone, but for all the subjects 
of oppression. And in that manner he met his death. 

The Boston massacre took place March 5, 1770. The inhabit- 
ants of that city had been the victims of British oppression to a 
degree that frenzied them with madness. They had been taxed 
without representation, and at last British troops were sent among 
them to enforce subjection at the point of the bayonet. They 
formed clubs to drive out the invaders. Shouting, "let us drive 
out the ribalds — they have no business here," the crowd rushed 
toward King street and made for the custom-house. At the sight 
of an armed sentinel the mob shouted, "Kill him! kill him!" and 
made an attack. Charles Botta, the Italian historian says: "There 
was a band of the populace, led by a mulatto named Attucks, 
who brandished their clubs and pelted them with snow-balls. The 
soldiers received the advance of the populace at the point of their 
bayonets. The scene was horrible. At length the mulatto and 



yaughan's plea for the old slayer 65 

twelve of liis companions pressing forward environed the soldiers, 
striking their muskets with their clubs, cried to the multitude, 
'Be not afraid — they dare not fire. Why do you hesitate ? Why- 
do you not kill them ? AYhy not crush them out at once ? ' " 

Inspired by the words of Attucks the crowd rushed madly on 
and, as they approached the soldiery, there was a discharge of 
firearms. Attucks, the brave leader, had lifted his arm to strike 
down Capt. Preston, the British officer in command, but he fell a 
victim to the first gun shot. Two others fell with him and five 
were wounded. The cry of bloodshed spread like wild fire. 
Citizens crowded the streets, white with rage. The church-bells 
rang the alarm , and in a little while the whole country was aroused 
to battle. 

Crispus Attucks was buried from historic Fanueil Hall with 
pomp and honor. He was no longer looked upon as a fugitive 
slave on whose head a price had been set, but as a patriot leader 
who had dared to shed his blood in defiance of British oppression. 
His position had been taken with firmness and decision, for in 
advance of the massacre he had addressed a letter to the Tory 
G-overnor of the pro vice of Massachusetts in these words : 

Sir: You will hear from us with astonishment. You ought to hear 
from, us with horror. You are chargeable before God and m.an with our 
blood. The soldiers are but passive instruments, mere machines, neither 
moral or voluntary agents in our destruction, more than the leaden pellets 
with which we were wounded. You were a free agent. You acted coollyj 
deliberately, with all that premeditated malice, not ag-ainst us in particu- 
lar, but against the people in general, which, in sight of the law, is an 
ingredient iu the composition of murder. You will hear from us further 
hereafter. Crispus Attucks. 

This letter has reference to a former skirmish before the fatal 
day of massacre. 

It will thus be seen that the first blood shed in the cause of the 
American Revolution was that of a patriot man of color who had 
lived twenty years of freedom after having deliberately broken 
the chains that bound him to a life of slavery. Where Crispus 
Attucks had made his abode during those twenty j^ears has not 
been made known to the present generation. Although a price 
had been set upon his head it is manifest that he did not go far 
enough away from Boston to prevent his hearing the clanking of 
the chains that were being forged to make Americans of eveiy 
creed and color the slaves of British tyranm^. At the first mani- 
festation of force he placed himself at the head of the people by 
right of having been l)orn and ordained of God as a natural 



66 a'aughan's plea for the old slaves. 

leader of men. He fell a martyr in a lioly cause. Let his name 
be held in sacred endearment. 

The liistor}^ of Crispus Attacks gives evidence that slaves are 
entitled to freedom, and they deserve compensation for the labor 
they performed when their time was not their own. 

FREDERICK DOUGLASS. 

Perhaps the best known man of color, now living, and the man 
of all others who has been regarded as the representative man of 
his race, is Frederick Douglass. A biographical sketch of this 
remarkable negro reads more like romance than fact ; and yet- 
every word that has been published respecting him is fact without 
the half having been told. 

'Mr. Douglass does not know his exact age, but he was probably 
born in the year 1817 or 1818. In an interview with his old 
master, who once held him as a slave, a few months prior to the 
death of the latter, he was told that according to the recollection 
of Captain Auld, he was born in the month of February, 1818. 
He had always regarded himself one year older. The birthplace 
of Douglass was in the district of Tuckahoe on the eastern shore 
of Maryland. His early years were marked by extreme poverty 
and wretchedness. He was the slave of Captain Auld, who was a 
severe taskmaster and selfishly cruel. Southern slave holders were 
not generally cruel, but there were exceptions, and the case of 
Frederick Douglass constituted an extraordinary exception. 

When ten years old Douglass was sent to Mrs. Sophia Auld, 
a relation by marriage to Captain Auld, to be reared as a 
house servant in Baltimore. His situation was now greatly 
improved. The woman had humane characteristics, and noticing 
that her servant was naturally bright and quick she began teach- 
ing him the alphabet. But her husband ascertained what was 
going on and soon put a stop to further instruction. Possibly 
this circumstance changed the whole tenor of Frederick Douglass' 
life. Had Mrs. Auld been permitted to teach him to read, and to 
have given him that kindly treatment which her heart prompted, 
he might have been content to have remained in Baltimore, and 
lie would have endured a life of slavery as millions of others have 
done. But the inhibition of the instruction he craved, only 
whetted his appetite for learning, and excited a determination to 
be a free man at tlie earliest opportunity. He carried his spelling 
book in his jacket and l)y sheer effort taught himself. When he 
could lead a little he invested his little earnings in a copy of the 




FREDERICK DOUGLASS. 



68 YAUGHAX'S PLEA FOR THP: OLD SLAVES. 

old Columbian Orator, and after reading the "Fanaticism of 
Libert}^" and the "Declaration of Independence" he made up his 
mind that there was no just right in holding him in slaver}^. 
He watched his chance and ran away. He had by this time 
nearly reached his majority and was engaged to a free woman 
of color. He made his way, as best he could, to New York, 
whither his affianced wife followed him. They were married and 
settled at New Bedford, Mass. Here he pursued a life of the 
severest toil, doing any job of work he could procure. Here 
several of his children were born. Through all his toil he con- 
tinued his studies and developed an active mind that will compare 
favorably with the educated talent of our first statesmen. He was 
a regular reader of William Lloyd Garrison's Liberator, and 
gauged his career after the system of that gentleman's teachings. 

His first political address was delivered at Nantucket in 1841. 
He was at once made an agent of the American Anti-Slavery 
societ}^, and in that capacity he began a crusade for the freedom 
and elevation of his race. His reputation began to extend all 
over the states and to foreign countries. The rumor went abroad 
that he was a fugitive from slavery, and there were constant 
threats of his arrest. But his identity was not easily established, 
as he had assumed the name of Frederick Douglass, and was not 
suspected of being the runaway slave of Capt. Auld. The custom 
of slave da3^s was for the servant to bear the name of the master. 

As his oratorical career spread his fame abroad Mr. Douglass 
was press-ed to visit England in the advancement of his work. 
There he was lionized. He was the guest of John Bright and 
British statesmen delighted to do him honor. He subsequently 
engaged in journalism and was the editor of several publications. 
While publishing Frederick Douglass' Paper he conceived the 
idea of sending his journal to every member of congress, which he 
did for several years . 

xibout this time Mr. Douglass made the acquaintance of John 
Brown, of Harper's Ferry memory, and they became fast friends. 
Together they formed plans for the liberation of slaves, but Mr. 
Douglass did not approve of an armed insurrection and did his 
best to induce Mr. Brown to abandon that program. In this, as 
the world knows, he was not successful. Had Mr. Douglass been 
successful in changing Mr. Brown's plans the Harper's Ferry 
tragedy would not have occurred. 

The association between Frederick Douglass and Mr. Brown 
became known, and with it the information was imparted as to 



vaughan's plea I or the old slaves. 69 

Mr. Douglass' identity. Governor Wise, of Virginia, took measures 
to have him arrested and restored to slavery. He addressed 
a letter to President Buchanan, asking to have two detectives 
commissioned as special mail agents that they might shadow him 
and, when convenient, arrest and take him south. But the facts 
came to light, and acting under the advice of friends Mr. 
Douglass repaired to Canada and thence sailed for Europe. He 
remained abroad until he might safely return to America and 
resume his anti-slavery work at home. 

During the war Mr,, Douglass was a prominent figure in all 
that appertained to his racCo He urged the issue of the emanci- 
pation proclamation with all the vigor and force of his great intel- 
lect, and when Mr. Lincoln finally became persuaded that emancipa- 
tion, as a war measure, was a union necessity he proceeded to act. 
When the first proclamation of September 1862 was made public, 
it is probable that no happier man lived on American soil than 
Frederick Douglass. The work of a lifetime was accomplished, the 
prayers of a lifetime had been answered, and the oppressed 
people of his race were practically free . 

Naturally, a man of Mr. Douglass* patriotic views on national 
questions, and his great desire to see his race elevated to a high 
standard of respectability, caused him to take a deep interest in 
the purposes of the war during its continuance. He was among 
the first to encourage the enlistment of colored troops, and to 
have them put upon a footing with white soldiers. He had 
become a man of large wealth, and he used his private means 
freely in the organization of black regiments, and in equipping 
the troops for service in the field. Two of his sons were among 
the first to enlist and thousands of others went with them to the 
front. While the young men of his race were taking part in 
active service, Mr. Douglass interested himself in securing for the 
negro troops the right of exchange and the general humane treat- 
ment extended to captives taken in war. In this work he wa,s 
successful in a marked degree . 

After the conclusion of hostilities Mr. Douglass was an active 
participant in the exciting scenes that took place in congress and 
other legislative bodies looking to riveting the rights established 
for the negro race upon the federal constitution, and the consti- 
tutions of those states wherein slavery had previously been a 
recognized institution. He was very active and influential in 
procuring the passage of the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments 
to the federal constitution, the freedmen's bureau bill, the civil 



70 vaughan's plea fojk the old slaves. 

rights act and other legislation necessary for the peace, comfort 
and protection of his race . 

Following the busy scenes and events of the reconstruction 
period Mr. Douglass entered the lecture field and achieved great 
distinction as a platform orator. In this theater of action he 
encountered much of the prejudice entertained by white people 
against the black race, simply because of their color. Great 
crowds rushed to hear him discuss the civic questions of the day, 
but very few desired to care for his comfort and well-being as he 
filled his lecture engagements. All were anxious to hear, but 
scarcely any were willing to entertain. An incident of this 
character is worth relating. 

Mr. Douglass had been invited to lecture before the library 
association at Evansville, Indiana. The question arose, "What 
shall we do with him?" None of the gentlemen directly con- 
nected with the association cared to have him as a guest. By 
chance Col. A. T. Whittlesey, who had been postmaster at Evans- 
ville during the administration of President Johnson, and was 
then the editor of the Evansville Daily Courier, and now of the 
Omaha Daily Democrat, learned of a heated discussion upon the 
subject between gentlemen of political sympathy with Mr. Doug- 
lass, not one of whom were willing to open their doors to the 
great orator. Col. Whittlesey at once addressed a note to Dr. H. 
W. Cloud, of the lecture committee, stating that he would be 
glad to have Mr. Douglass become his guest, and that all colored 
persons, ladies and gentlemen, who desired to pay their respects to 
Mr. Douglass during his sojourn would be just as welcome at his 
parlors as white persons who might see fit to call. 

Mr. Whittlesey and his wife had frequently entertained such 
eminent statesmen as Thomas A. Hendricks, Senator Yoorhees 
and other persons of recognized political reputation. It was 
remarked that as their guest Mr. Douglass would be extended 
all the courtesy and attention due to his great ability, but for 
political reasons party leaders refused to permit the proposed 
arrangement to be carried out. Mr. Douglass was not allowed to 
be Col. Whittlesey's guest, nor the guest of any other respectable 
white gentleman in Evansville. Neither was he provided with 
quarters in any of the public hotels in the city. He was accommo- 
dated at a negro boarding house kept by a Widow Carter, a very 
highly respected colored lady, and no white persons called to pay 
their respects other than the lecture committee having him 
immediately under their charge. It is scarcely necessary to say 



yaughan's plea for the old slaves. 71 

that this little episode created an intense local excitement for a 
time, and it serves to show the deep seated prejudice entertained 
against the colored race, even at the North, by persons claiming to 
be the especial friends and champions of the blacks. But this 
prejudice is fast disappearing, and a feeling of brotherly kindness 
and regard is gradually extending. 

In the civil service since the war Mr. Douglass has been a 
ry conspicuous figure. He was a presidential elector in the 
state of New York in 1872, was made Marshal of the District of 
Columbia in 1877 and Register of Deedj of the District in 1881. 
He continued to hold that office about a year and a half under the 
administration of President Cleveland. He is now American 
Minister at San Domingo. He is in all respects a great man, 
Jiaving few equals in any walk of life. He is purely a self-made 
man, and he has raised himself to the top-most round of the 
ladder of fame. He is a credit to the negro race and an honor to 
any people. 

SAMUEL R. LOWERY. 

The subject of this sketch is a person of a different cast in life 
from most of the others who have made a record for distinguishment 
in the annals of the black race. While descended from slave 
stock, on the one side, he was not himself a slave, his mother 
having been a free woman from the time of his birth. But his 
father was a slave, and never breathed the air of personal freedom 
until the edict of emancipation was promulgated. He was then 
at liberty to meet his distinguished son on the plane of liberty, 
which is the natural right of all men without regard to color. 

Samuel E. Lowery was born December 9, 1830, from the 
union of a slave father and a mother who was a full-blooded 
Cherokee Indian. The father is living, or was two years ago, at 
Nashville, Tenn., and in all that goodly city there is no man 
who has a juster pride in his offspring than Father Lowery enter- 
tains for the progress made by his distinguished son. Mr. 
Lowery lost his mother when he was about eight years old. At 
the age of sixteen years Mr. Lowery took upon himself the 
business of school teaching, and for one so young met with 
tolerable success, and continued to teach until he was twenty years 
old. During his course as a teacher he fell in with Rev. Talbot 
Fanning, who aided the young man in his aspirations and was 
instrumental in securing for him a good education. He entered 
the. ministry and for about eight years was pastor of the 




SAMUEL E. LOWERY. 



vaughan's plea for the old slaves. 73 

Christian church at Cincinnati, Ohio. While following the life 
of a Christian minister in the Queen City he married a colored 
lady of culture, and soon afterward took up his residence in 
Canada. He returned to the United States in 1863, after the 
appearance of President Lincoln's second proclamation, and pro- 
ceeding to Nashville, near the scenes of his birthplace, he began 
preaching the doctrine of salvation as taught in the Christian 
churches, but he coupled with it the freedom of the southern 
slaves as an incident of salvation. He became chaplain of Col. 
Crawford's regiment of negro soldiers, the same being the 
Fortieth regiment of the United States infantry regulars. He 
was afterward transferred to the Ninth United States heavy 
artillery, with which he remained in the capacity of chaplain 
until the dawn of peace. 

Mr. Lowery opened a school in Rutherford county, Tennessee, 
after the war, but the prevalence of political excitement prevented 
his success in that work. He then took a law course and was 
admitted to the bar at Nashville. In 1875 he took up »^his 
residence at Huntsville, Alabama, and pursued his legal calling 
with marked success. One of his cases having been carried to the 
supreme court of the United States he followed it to Washington 
for the purpose of making an argument, and he was admitted to 
the bar of the highest tribunal of the land upon motion of Mrs. 
Belva A. Lockwood, the renowned female attorney . While in 
Washington his two daughters, aged respectively 15 and 10 years, 
visited an exhibition of silkworms and became interested in the 
silk culture. They persuaded their father to purchase some silk- 
worm eggs, which he did, and with the aid of the southern 
mulberry tree as a feeder of the worms Mr. Lowery began the 
silk culture at Huntsville, which he has promoted to a valuable 
industry. After beginning this work Mr. Lowery visited all the 
silk industries in America and mastered all the points to which 
his attention was directed. 

Mr. Lowery has abandoned the practice of the law and has 
given his whole time to the culture of silk. At the New Orleans 
industrial exposition he was awarded the first prize for fine silk 
goods, over an old French establishment to which a premium of 
$1,000 had been paid as an inducement to make an exhibit. The 
silk factory at Huntsville is in a very prosperous condition ,' and 
the name of Samuel R. Lowery, preacher, lawyer and manufac- 
turer, is among those standing high in the progress of the 
colored people . His father was a slave ! 



74 vaughan's plea for the old slaves. 

hon. robert smalls. 

Few of the ex-slaves deserve more favorable mention or higher 
honor than the ex-member of Congress from the Beaufort district 
of South Carolina. Mr. Smalls was born at Beaufort, in the 
district which he subsequently^ represented in the house of repre- 
sentatives at Washington, April 5, 1839. As a slave his 
advantages of education were limited, but by hook or crook he 
managed to secure the smattering of an English education. In 
1851 he went to Charleston and was emploj^ed in the business 
of ship rigging. In this business he learned the business of equip- 
ping a vessel and incidentally the duties of a sailor. In that 
capacity he became connected with the Planter, a transport doing 
business in Charleston harbor. He was employed on board that 
vessel when Fort Sumter was fired upon in 1861. The Planter 
was taken in possession by the Confederate authorities and was 
used as a dispatch boat until she was captured and turned over to 
the blockading fleet of the United States navy, May 13, 1862. 

The capture of the vessel was accomplished by Robert Smalls. 
The day before, the vessel had been engaged in removing guns 
from Coles Island to James Island. After the work was done the 
boat returned to Charleston . The officers went ashore, leaving a 
crew of eight colored men on board in charge of Mr. Smalls, who 
was a wheelman and acting pilot. The crew was called together, 
and Robert Smalls laid before the men on deck his plan for turn- 
ing over the vessel to the United States squadron, to which all 
assented, although two of the men became frightened and con- 
cluded to remain behind. The scheme was hazardous, as the boat 
was obliged to pass under the guns of the fort and the shore 
batteries . Detection was certain death . At 2 o 'clock in the morning 
steam w^as raised and the Planter, with a valuable cargo of guns 
and ammunition, designed for the equipment of Fort Ripley, a 
new fortification erected in the harbor, moved up to the North 
Atlantic wharf, where Smalls' wife and two children, three men 
and four other women, were taken on board. All were colored 
people. The Planter passed Fort Johnson, first sounding her 
whistle in salute, and receiving the customary salute in return, 
and proceeded down the bay. Passing Fort Sumter Smalls leaned 
out of the pilot house with the broad sombrero of Relay, the 
master of the vessel, drawn over his face, and was mistaken for 
that officer. 

The required signal was given and responded to. After pass- 
ing the Fort the Planter was headed for Morris Island, then 




HON. ROBERT SMALLS. 



76 YAUGIIAN S PLEA FOR THE OLD SLAVES. 

occupied by Hatch's light artillery. When it became evident that 
the Planter was heading for the Federal fleet the Hatch battery at 
Morris' Island was signalled to stop her; but it was too late. The 
Planter displayed a white flag, but in the darkness it was not dis- 
tinguished. She was mistaken for a Confederate ram, and the 
naval vessels drew out of her way . The ship Onward , not being a 
steamer, prepared for a broadside, w^hen the lookout chanced to 
observe the flag of truce. When within hailing distance her char- 
acter was explained and the Planter was speedily surrendered to 
Captain Nichols, of the United States navy. Robert Smalls was 
afterwards transferred to the gun-boat Crusader, and on board of 
that vessel and the captured Planter he continued to do duty dur- 
ing the war. He was honored with a captain's rank in the United 
States navy, but he was never commissioned as such an officer. 

After the war a bill was introduced in Congress to place the 
name of Eobert Smalls upon the retired list of the United States 
navy, and a voluminous report was submitted showing the value of 
the property which he captured, and the meritorious service which 
he rendered to the Government of the United States. Yet, strange 
to say, the bill did not pass for the frivolous reason assigned that 
there was no precedent for placing a civilian upon the retired list of 
the navy. Had Mr. Smalls been a distinguished politician of the. 
party in power he would, no doubt, have been voted a high reward 
for services rendered the Union cause. 

At the close of the war Captain Smalls, as he was called, drop- 
ped, naturally, into civil life. He was elected a member of the 
convention which framed the constitution of South Carolina under 
the reconstruction acts, and took an active part in the proceedings. 
In 1868 he was made a member of the state legislature, and was the 
author of the state civil rights bill. He then served a part of a 
term in the state senate as the successor of Judge Wright, and after- 
wards was elected for a full term. He occupied a high rank in the 
South Carolina militia, holding the rank of lieutenant-colonel of 
the third regiment, and was made a brigadier-general in 1873. 

General Smalls, was a delegate to three national conventions of 
the republican party — at Philadelphia, in 1872, when Grant and 
Wilson received the party nomination; at Cincinnati, in 1876, 
when Hayes and Wheeler were nominated, and again at Chicago, 
in 1884, when Blaine and Logan were placed in the field. He has 
served three successive terms in Congress, having been elected the 
first time in 1880, to the Forty-seventh Congress; he was re-elected 
in 1882 to the Forty-eighth Congress, and again in 1884 to the 



vaughan's plea for the old slaves. 77 

Forty-ninth Congress. He is a gentleman of pleasant demeanor, 
affable and approachable, and he is in every respect an honor to his 
race . 

PROF. JOSEPH E. JONES. 

Among the remarkable men, of the African race who 
have sprung from the lap of the institution of slavery, there are 
some who have distinguished themselves in the field of literature 
and learning in a high degree, and have made a mark in educa- 
tional progress quite as eminent as those who have taken a high 
rank in political life. In this catalogue very honorable mention 
deserves to be made of Prof. J. E. Jones, of the theological semi- 
nary at Richmond, Virginia. 

Prof. Jones was born in slavery in the city of Lynchburg, 
October 15, 1850. He is still a comparatively young man. He 
began life at the age of six years, as stripper in a tobacco factory, 
greatly to the disgust of his mother , who had a mother 's heart and 
ambition for her offspring. The laws of Virginia forbade the 
education of slaves, and there opened up for the mother only a life 
of toil for her boy . Yet she conceived the idea that some time in 
the future the negroes would become free, and that her son would 
be somebody. She frequently expressed such sentiments to her 
fellow slaves, and on one occasion she stated her opinion to her 
master. The woman was esteemed to be stark mad. There was, 
however, method in her madness, and having saved some money 
of her own, she procured the services of a negro in the same 
family to which she belonged, but who had a limited education, to 
give her son elementary lessons. Two or three evenings a week 
were devoted to this purpose . It was near the end of the war , in 
1864, and the condition of the confederate cause was becoming 
desperate. The teacher became frightened and concluded that it 
would be prudent for him to suspend his educational functions. 
After much persuasion he concluded to continue the lessons every 
Sunday morning from 10 to 12 o'clock. About this time the 
teacher's owner ascertained that his slave could read and write, 
and the master accordingly sold a slave that was such unsafe 
property as to be possessed of a little education. This was a sad 
blow to the aspirations of young Joe Jones. 

But the fond mother could not give over her project of 
securing an education for her son. A sick confederate soldier 
happened to come in her locality and she offered him lodging and 
food in case he would give lessons to the 3^oung lad. Thus matters 
continued for several weeks until the surrender of General Lee at 




PROF. JOSEPH E. JONES, 



VAUGHAN S PLEA FOR THE OLD SLAVES. 79 

Appomattox. Then followed the universal recognition of the 
success of emancipation, and a brighter day dawned for the 
aspiring youth. He at once became a student in a private 
school opened at Lynchburg, where he continued two years. 

In October, 1868, young Jones entered the Richmond Insti- 
tute, now the Richmond Seminary, in which he figures as a 
Professor. Here he received instruction three years and then 
entered the Madison University at Hamilton, N. Y., where he 
graduated in 1876, having taken a complete preparatory and 
college course. The same year the American Baptist Home Mis- 
sion Society, of New York, appointed him as instructor in the 
Richmond Institute, and made him professor of language and 
philosophy. The following year he was ordained as a Baptist 
Minister, and his Alma Mater conferred upon him the degree of 
Master of Arts. He is now professor of Homeletics and the 
Greek language in the Richmond Theological Seminary. 

The career of this able and accomplished student furnishes 
abundant evidence that the despised negro slave of other days may 
become eminent in letters and renowned in the service of the 
Divine Master. 

PROF. JOHN H. BURRUS. 

The surrender of 1865 found three slave boys named Burrus 
at Marshall, Texas, with the remnant of Bragg's army. With 
their mother they were sent to Shreveport, La., thence to New 
Orleans and finally to Memphis, Tenn. Ilere the subject of this 
sketch, John H. Burrus found employment as a steamboat cook. 
About 1866 he went to Nashville and became a hotel waiter. He 
saved his money and took to study of evenings in order to 
acquire an education, receiving instruction from two lady boarders 
of the hotel. By 1867 he had saved 1300, and then determined 
to take a course at the Fisk University. During the vacations he 
taught school. Thus he continued until 1874. During the sum- 
mer of that year he traveled with a religious panorama. In 1876 
he was elected a delegate to the republican national convention at 
Cincinnati and there voted for the nomination of Rutherford 
B. Hayes for president. 

After the convention Mr. Burrus made an extensive tour 
throughout the North and East. On his return home he was 
chosen principal of the Yazoo city school at Yazoo, Miss. He 
subsequently taught two years in his Alma Mater College, the Fisk 
University, and received the degree of A. M. In 1879 he began 
reading law and was admitted to the bar in 1881. In 1883 he 




PKOF. JOHN li. 15URRUS, 



yaughan's plea for the old slaves. 81 

was selected for the presidency of the Alcorn Agricultural and 
Mechanical College at Rodney, Miss., which has grown to be one 
of the most important institutions of learning in the South under 
his administration. He is a gentleman of the finest culture, 
devoted to his profession, and highly esteemed throughout 
Mississippi by all classes of people . 

Besides representing his people at the Cincinnati Convention 
in 1876 Prof. Burrus has been a good deal of a politician and has 
manifested an aptitude for public life. He was secretary of the 
Tennessee republican convention in 1878 and was secretary and 
treasurer of the State Executive Committee for two years. He 
was elected a school director at Nashville in 1878 and was re-elected 
in 1881, beating the combined vote of two competitors, one white 
man and one negro, although the majority of the people of the 
district were white. The other two directors were white men, yet 
Mr. Burrus was made chairman of the board and charged with 
the duty of visiting all the schools and seeing that the course of 
instruction was rigidly followed. 

Since being placed at the head of the Alcorn University Prof. 
Burrus has abjured political life and proposes to devote the 
balance of his days strictly to educational interests. He has done 
much towards the elevation of his race. Pie does not believe in 
any man complaining that his color has kept him down in life. 
He believes that brains and character will always win. He has 
scarcely yet reached the prime of life, and there is a prospect of 
his accomplishing a glorious work in the future. 

WILEY JONES. 

Among the successful ex-slaves the name of Wiley Jones, of 
Arkansas, shines with resplendent luster. All success is the result 
of innate qualities which mark and make a man. In a pecuniary 
sense Mr. Jones has met with unbounded success, and he certainly 
deserves the good fortune which has attended his labors siuce he 
was released from bondage. 

Wiley Jones is a native of Georgia, having been born in 
Madison county, July 14, 1848. His parents are dead. When 
only five years old he was taken to Arkansas by his master, whose 
name was Fitz Yell. As soon as he was old enough he was made 
a house-boy, and he also drove the family carriage. He continued 
in these lines of employment for two 3^ears or more. His master 
was an original union man and enlisted in the Federal army at the 
first opportunity. His slave, Wiley Jones, followed him, and he 




WILEY JONES. 



vaughan's plea for th^: old slaves. 83 

continued in camp until peace was proclaimed. He then went to 
Waco, Texas, and drove from Brazos river to San Antonio, haul- 
ing cotton to the frontier. He next returned to Arkansas and 
worked on a plantation for monthly wages. In 1881 he went into 
the tobacco and cigar trade, in which business he rapidly accumu- 
lated a fortune. He is naturally a shrewd trader, and to his 
natural quickness of perception he is indebted for his business suc- 
cess, for he never had the advantage of a system of schooling, 
and hence his education is very limited, being such as he has 
picked up in life, as he came in contact with men and events. 
The school of adversity and experience is often the best teacher 
of men, especially of the class of persons who never yield to 
discouragement in life. 

Mr. Jones is now a resident of Pine Bluff, one of the rapidly 
developing cities of the state of Arkansas. He has extended his 
business by securing the street car charter for that thriving place, 
and he has placed his car lines under thorough equipment. He is 
also treasurer of the Industrial Fair Association. He is the sole 
owner of the grounds whereon the fair has been held, and of the 
race track and park, which covers fifty-five acres of ground lying 
one mile distant from the main street of the city. The street car 
stables are also located on this tract. 

In his mercantile business Mr. Jones carries a stock of goods 
valued at $15,000, and he estimates his total possessions at 
$125,000, which is augmenting at a rapid rate. In all probability 
the day is near at hand when he will be accounted a millionaire. 
lie is also a great fancier of blooded stock, and owns a herd of 
Durham and Holstein cattle. He is likewise engaged in breeding 
fine trotting stock, and one of his stallions, " Executor," has 
a record of 2:21. On his farm he has about a dozen choice bred 
mares, and he keeps a professional driver to handle them, which 
insures the best of care and a fine development of speed. 

Taken altogether, Wiley Jones may be regarded as one of the 
most successful business men of the country. It is only about a 
quarter of a century since he was emancipated from the bondage 
of slavery, and his advancement since that time has been prodig- 
ious. He is regarded as the soul of honor by his white neighbors, 
who esteem him as a gentleman of the first-class. He is liberal, 
charitable and humane, as well as enterprising and successful in 
business affairs. 



34 AMUGHAX S PLEA FOK THE OLD SLAVES. 

JOHN AVESLEY TERRY. 

This gentleman is one of the natural mechanics of the land, 
who has raised himself from an humble origin to an honored 
position in the street railwa}^ service of a great city. He was 
born in Murray county, Tennessee, in the year 1846, and was the 
slave of one William Pickard until released from bondage by the 
circumstances of the rebellion. His earliest recollections are of a 
very crude nature. His mother was a field hand and was obliged 
to work on the farm the live-long day. Having no other 
resource, the subject of this sketch and an older brother, when but 
prattling infants, were placed in a pen every morning, with a 
sufficiency of food and water to answer their daily necessities, and 
left to their own resources until the tired mother returned from 
her daily toil to her cabin and her infant children. Truly this 
was a hard beginning of an humble life to produce the grand 
results which have followed in the j^ears of manhood. 

When the union armies entered Columbia, Tennessee, in the 
summer of 1863, the mother of Mr. Terry took her children and 
started for the Federal lines . She was received and cared for , and 
for a season was offered protection. The elder son, Henry, was 
old enough to bear arms, and enlisted in the union service. In 
time a change of commanders occurred at Columbia, and one Col. 
Myers assumed control of the x^lace. He made it a rule to return 
all slaves to their masters when claimed. Accordingly Mrs. Terr}^ 
and her younger son were sent back to Murray count}^. Arrived 
there the 3^oung man declared his emancipation to his former 
master, and threatened to report him to the union commander at 
the adjacent town for harboring and feeding rebel soldiers, 
that county having been occupied b}^ union troops during their 
absence at Columbia. Ilis old master begged him not to make 
such a report, promised to recognize his freedom and pay him 
wages for future service. Accordingly young Terry worked for 
two years as a farm hand for the man who had formerly been his 
lawful master. 

In 1866 young Wesley went to Nashville to look for his 
mother, who had made a second attempt at escape from bondage. 
Having found her, he began the business of steam boating, while 
liis mother kept house for him. In 1875 he went to Chicago and 
entered the employ of the West Hivision Street Car Company 
and worked for the corporation two years. He then went to 
Washington, I). C, and entered the Way land Seminary, wliere he 
remained four 3'ears. He completed the normal course and then 



VAUGHAN S PLEA FOR THE OLD SLAVES. 



85 



took a theological course, with a view of entering the ministry of 
the Baptist church, of which he was a member. But having con- 
tracted some debts during his collegiate course, he concluded to 
resume work in the car shops, Avhere he has continued to the 
present time . In the course of a 3^ear he was made foreman , and 
has a large force of mechanics under his direction, he being the 
only man of color in the company's employment. He is highly 
respected by the officers of the company, and by the men wha 
work under him. His skill as a machinist is of the highest order. 
He is a member of the Knights of Labor and a director of the- 
Central Park Building and Loan association. 

From a plantation hand in Tennessee this 3^oung man has 
risen to affluence and respectability. The progress of the ex-slave 
appears to be onward and upward. 

p. B. S. PINCHBACK. 

Few men in the South have attracted so large a share of public 
attention since the days of emancipation as the Plon. Pinckney 
Benton Stewart Pinchback, of New Orleans. He was born in 
Holmes County, Miss., May 10, 1837. He was the son of Major 
William Pinchback and a slave mother of mixed blood, Eliza 
Stewart, who claimed to have both Negro and Indian blood in her 
veins. Major Pinchback manumitted the girl Eliza Stewart, who 
bore him ten children , so it can scarcely be said that Gov . Pinch- 
back ever was a slave, though the son of a slave mother. He is 
the sole survivor of the large family. The mother lived to a 
ripe old age, dying in 1884. 

In 1846 young Pinchback with an elder brother was sent to 
Cincinnati to Gilmore's High School where they remained two 
years. On their return home they found Major Pinchback on his 
dying bed. The mother with five children hurried back to 
Cincinnati after the funeral in order to prevent the enslavement 
of the children by the white heirs of Major Pinchback 's estate. 
While there the oldest son lost his mind. This calamity left the 
care of the family upon the subject of this sketch. He was then 
only twelve years old. He obtained work as a cabin boy on a. 
canal boat at eight dollars a month, on the Miami canal, between 
Cincinnati and Toledo. He followed the canal for several years, 
on the Miami canal and on the Wabash and Erie canal in Indiana, 
for some time making his home at Terre Haute. From 1854 to 
1861 he took to the business of steamboating on the Missouri, the 
Mississippi, the Red and the Yazoo rivers, rising to the dignity of 




P, B. S, riNCHUACK, 



vaughan's plea for the old slaves. 87 

a steward , which was the highest position a colored man could 
command in those days. 

The career of Mr. Pinch back as a steamboat steward was 
brought to a termination by the outbreak of the civil war in 1861. 
The day he was 25 years old, May 10, 1862, he abandoned the 
steamboat Alonzo Childs at Yazoo City, Miss., ran the confederate 
blockade and arrived in New Orleans. He had scarcely arrived 
there before he had a difhculty with his brother-in-law, who was 
wounded in the affray. He was arrested on civil process and 
gave bail. Before his case came on for trial he was again arrested 
by the military , tried by coiart martial and committed to a term of 
two years in the workhouse on a charge of assault with intent to 
murder. He was committed to the workhouse May 25, 1862, but 
was released August 18 of the same 3^ear in order that he might 
enlist in the First Louioiana Volunteer Infantry, his enlistment 
being the condition of his release. 

Soon after entering the military service Gen. B. F. Butler, 
then in command at New Orleans, issued his order calling upon 
the free men of color in the Crescent City to take up arms in 
defense of the union. > Mr. Pinchback was made a recruiting 
sergeant and he opened an ofnce for the enlistment of colored 
soldiers. On the 12th of October the Second Regiment of the 
Louisiana Native Guards vfas mustered into service with Captain 
P. B. S. Pinchback in command of Company A. His career in 
the army vfas brief but stormy. He strove to maintain his own 
dignity and the rights of the troops under his command. The 
Federal soldiers were as hostile to the black troops as the most 
belligerent rebels. Capt . Pinchback was in hot water all the time. 
He was in constant trouble with the street car ofncials, who 
ejected him time and again. lie also had a difficulty with the 
colonel of his regiment, whom he accused of mistreating his men. 
His troubles came so thick and fast that September 3, 1863, he 
tendered his resignation and it was accepted. 

But Capt. Pinchback could not be idle. He soon sought an 
interview with Gen. N. P. Banks, who succeeded Gen. Butler. 
The General was favorably impressed and issued an order permit- 
ting Ca^ot. Pinchback to recruit a company of colored cavalry. 
The company was raised but a commission was refused to Pinch- 
back because of his color. This act of injustice closed his mili- 
tary career. He did not again seek to serve his country as a 
soldier. 



88 vaughan's tlea for the ©ld slaves. 

^flr. Pinch back so©n turned liis attention t© political affairs. 
In the fall of 1865 h« spoke in Mobile, Montgomery, and Selma, 
Alabama, denouncing the unjust treatment which the colored 
people were receiving at the hands of lawless and vicious m^i. 
April 9, 1867 he organized the Fourth "Ward Republican Club in 
Kew Orleans, and he was elected a member of the republican 
state committee, a position he has occupied almost continuously 
since that time. He was appointed a commissioner of customs by 
Hon. AVm. Pitt Kellogg, May 22, 1867, Mr. Kellogg being col- 
lector of the port at that time. He, however, declined the 
position to become a candidate for a seat in the constitutional 
convention then about to be held. He was elected and was a 
leading member of the convention. He reported the civil rights 
article guaranteeing equality to all the citizens of the state. At 
the first election under the new constitution he was elected a state 
senator. In 1868 he was chosen a delegate-at-large to the Chicago 
convention which nominated Gen. Grant for the presidency. 

The next 3'^ear he entered into business and established the com- 
mission and cotton factorage house of Pinchback and Antoine. 
The firm did an immense business and had Mr. Pinchback kept out 
of politics, he would probably have become one of the wealthiest 
men in the world in a very short time. As it was he accumulated 
a handsome fortune. 

In December, 1870, Mr. Pinchback engaged in the publicartion 
of the Kew Orleans Louisianian , which he continued about eleven 
years. It was the organ of the colored race. The same year he 
endeavored to organize a Mississippi river packet company but 
did not meet with sufficient encouragement and he abandoned the 
enterprise. December 6, 1871, he was elected president protem of 
the state senate to fill the vacancy occasioned b}^ the death of Hon. 
Oscar J. Dunn, and became the Acting Lieutenant Governor of 
the state. The next year he was nominated as the republican 
candidate for governor . The federal office holders had previously 
nominated "NYm. Pitt Kellogg for that office. There was also a 
democratic ticket in the field, which was certain of success unless a 
compromise could be made between the two wings of the republican 
party. Such a compromise was finally arranged and Kellogg was 
made governor while Pinchback was elected congressman- at-large; 
and tlie success of tliis mutual arrangement probably had the effect 
of continuing republican supremacy in Louisiana for three or four 
years. Ihit there was a factional fight raging inside of the republican 
ranks, which could not fail to injure party domination in the 



vaughan's plea for the old slaves. 89 

long run, and it seriously impaired the hope of Governor Pinch- 
back continuing in the same prominence he had occupied since the 
close of the war. Governor Warmoth espoused the cause of 
Horace Greeley, and for a time acted with the democratic party. 
When the legislature convened Governor Pinchback was chosen 
United States senator, but the Warmoth republicans refused to 
vote for him, and although he was declared eleoted and received a 
certificate, there was so much doubt surrounding the case that the 
Federal senate refused to seat him. After a continued reference 
for three 3^ears , to the senatorial committee on elections , the right 
of Governor Pinchback to be sworn as a member was denied by a 
vote of 29 ayes and 32 noes. This contest was a very remarkable 
one. There was no other claimant for the vacant seat, and Gov. 
Pinchback was armed with full credentials for the place he sought, 
but his right to a seat was finally denied. While this long con- 
test was pending the term of congress, to which Gov. Pinchback 
was elected as a member at large to the house of representatives , 
expired. The very remarkable picture was presented in this 
instance of a man holding certificates of election to both houses of 
congress, and though asking admission, he was not accepted in 
either house. 

When the political troubles came on in Louisiana which fol- 
lowed the appointment of the National Electoral Commission, in 
1877, Governor Pinchback managed to pay off some of his political 
debts. He was instrumental in having the Nicholls state govern- 
ment recognized, although the electoral vote of the state was 
counted for Mr. Hayes, while S. B. Packard, the republican candi- 
date for governor against General Kicholls, had more votes in the 
state than were cast for the Hayes and Wheeler electoral ticket . 

The political asperities existing within the republican ;^arty of 
Louisiana, measurably died away after the state passed under demo- 
cratic control. One of the earliest acts of the administration of 
Governor Nicholls was to appoint Mr. Pinchback a member of the 
State Board of Education, a position he had already held with 
acceptability for six years. He was appointed an internal revenue 
agent March 5, 1879, and held the ofliice until he was elected, from 
Madison Parish, to a seat in the convention called to remodel the 
first reconstruction constitution of Louisiana. He was a delegate at 
large to the Chicago convention of 1880, which nominated Garfield 
and Arthur, and when General Arthur became President after 
Guiteau's assassination of President Garfield, he appointed Gover- 
nor Pinchback to the office of collector at New Orleans. 



90 vaughan's plea for the old slaves. 

Although advanced in j-ears bej^ond the ordinary life of students, 
Governor Pinchback entered the law school of the State University 
of Louisiana, in 1885, and April 10, 1886, he was admitted to the 
bar in the city of New Orleans, just one month before he was forty- 
nine years old. It is not often that a man passes through nearly a 
half century of existence before he makes application for admission 
to the bar in the courts of a great city, but it must be borne in 
mind that Governor Pinckney B. S. Pinchback is a ver}^ wonderful 
man. He would succeed where thousands of others fail. 

Governor Pinchback is in the enjoyment of a large legal practice 
and is coining money. He is wealthy. There are few men of larger 
liberality than he . The vicissitudes of his life have been such as 
attach to the fortunes of very few men. Of large brain, of large 
heart and broad views, Governor Pinchback is a man to make him- 
self felt wherever his future lines may be cast. He belongs to a 
race of men who could not be otherwise than aggressive, but his 
aggressions have always been found earnest, and honest, as the seem- 
ing right commanded the approbation of his judgment. The future 
of Governor Pinchback will likel}^ be found as interesting as his 
past, if circumstances shall again call him into the seething turmoil 
of public strife. 

BLANCHE K. BRUCE. 

Here we have a man with a woman's name. He might as well 
have been named Mary or Jane as Blanche; but his mother gave 
him the name and that is all we know about it. He bears it 
"worthily and well. 

Blanche K. Bruce was born in Virginia, March 1, 1841. His 
parents were slaves, and he was born in bondage. In his early 
days his mother removed to St. Louis and he grew nearly to 
manhood in that city. While there, a little barefoot, ragged 
urchin , peddling newspapers on the levee , he was one day accosted 
by a gentleman who was hastily making his way down the levee, 
enroute to a steamboat which was nearly ready to pull out upon its 
destination for the lower Mississippi river, with: 

" Here, you damned little nigger, take this satchel and carry 
it aboard that steamboat,'* pointing to it, " or I'll throw you in 
the river." 

The boy took a package, nearly as big as himself, and hurried 
upon the steamboat. The owner of the luggage came aboard just 
as the stage-plank was being pulled upon deck, and the " damned 
little nigger " had to hustle ashore without getting one cent for his 
service as a carrier. 




BLANCHE K. BRUCE, 



92 yaughan's plea for the old slaves. 

Years passsed b}', and the owner of the satchel was a member 
of the United States Senate, from the great State of Missouri. His 
name was Lewis Y. Bogy (pronounced Bozhee, with accent on 
the second sj^llable) . Y^hile Mr. Bogy was a senator, Mr. Bruce 
was made a member of the senate from Mississippi. The Missouri 
senator had a bill pending which was of local importance. He 
went to Mr. Bruce, explained its importance, and solicited his 
vote. The colored man promptly responded that he would vote 
for the bill. He then proceeded : • 

' ' Senator Bogy , do 3^ou remember a little ragged negro that 
carried your carpet-bag to a steamboat, 3^ears ago, at the St. Louis 
levee and only received a few divine curses for his service ? ' ' 

" Yes; " said Mr. Bogy, " what of it? " 

" AYhy,I am that contemptible little nigger," said Senator 
Bruce, " and you owe me for that service yet. Of course I will 
vote for your bill." 

Senator Bog}^ hastily made a computation of the value of that 
service with compound interest and tendered payment, which was 
promptly refused. The twain, however, repaired to the senate 
restaurant and " smiled." Bogy and Bruce remained firm friends 
until the death of the former. 

After the war of negro independence Mr. Bruce entered 
Oberlin college, and took an elective course. His association with 
young gentlemen of general intelligence awakened a dormant 
thirst for knowledge and the practical application of scholarly 
information . 

He migrated to Mississippi after the war and began life as a 
planter, believing that to be his vocation in life. Li 1868 he took 
an active part in political affairs . Two years later he was sergeant- 
at-arms of the Mississippi senate, and while in that capacity was 
thrown in active contact with the best men of the state. He filled 
the office of assessor for his county, and was subsequently made 
sheriff. Then he was chosen a member of the Board of Levee Com- 
missioners for the Mississippi river. 

In 1874, Mr. Bruce was made a senator of the United States 
from Mississippi. He served a full term. During his senatorial 
career he was the friend of Roscoe Conkling, who conducted him 
to the bar of the senate when he was first sworn into office. He 
was made register of the treasury under the regime of Mr. Garfield 
and is to-day doing a pension business in Washington. Blanche 
K. Bruce is a big man every way. 



THE COLOEED MINISTRY. 

In presenting a few sketches of the success in life that has at- 
tended former slaves, after being released from bondage, it is ap- 
propriate that honorable mention should be made of men who have 
devoutl}'- stepped into the sacred desk and labored with zeal and 
efficiency for the benefit, temporal and eternal, of their fellow-men. 
In doing so it is fair to say the writer thinks there must be intense 
disgust in the minds of honorable people at the expression of 
Booker T. Washington, a colored man, holding the honorable 
position of president of the Tuskegee Normal School, in a commu- 
nication which he furnished to the Christian Union. After stating 
that three-fourths of the Baptist ministers and two-thirds of the 
Methodist " are unfit, either mentally or morally or both, to preach 
the Gospel to anyone or to lead anyone , ' ' the honorable professor 
subsides into flippancy and says: 

The character of many of these preachers can be judged by one, of 
whom it was said that while he was at work in a cotton field, in the middle 
of July, he suddenly stopped, looked upward and said : " Oh, Lord, de work 
is so hard, de cotton is so grassy, an' de sun am so hot — I belive dis darkey 
am called to preach." With few exceptions the preaching of the colored 
ministry is emotional in the highest degree, and the minister considers 
himself successful in proportion as he is able to set the people in all parts 
of the congregation to groaning, uttering wild screams, and jumping, and 
finally going into a trance. , One of the principal ends sought by most of 
these ministers is their salary, and to this everything else is made sub- 
servient. 

It may be feared that many white ministers, higlil}^ educated 
and very devoted to the work of human salvation, have an eye to 
their salaries as the chief end of man; and they make everything 
else subservient to a payment into the treasury of the Lord, for the 
behoof of the educated ministry, of a sum of money that will make 
them independent when they grow old and are " retired " by the 
order of the congress of the church. Very few — ah, how few — of 
the educated white divines of the da}^ surrender a fat living to go 
into the wilderness and preach for a bare subsistence! The number 
of men who have done this thing, under the call of Jehovah, are 
scarcer than hen's teeth, of mythical anatomy. Ye proud divines, 
who condemn the service of colored ministers, are no better than 
the}^. Everyone of jow. work for paj^, and you would be driving 
wagons, in all probability, in case your churches should sit down 
upon 3" our ministration. There is not, in all the Ignited States, a 
more devout set of churchmen than the colored ministers of the 



94 vaughan's plea for the old slaves. 

South, who preach the Gospel to men of their color as best they 
know how, for a bare subsistence. They follow the calling of the 
Master, in spirit and in truth. The highest realm of the churches 
would be glad to welcome them in the pulpit, except for their 
color! 

History does not tell us the color of the humble fishermen , call- 
ed in the name of Jesus, when he planned the way of universal salva- 
tion . It is scarcely probable that any of them were of the classes 
from whence the nations of the north spread over the barren soil 
of Europe, and finally adventured to America, perhaps before the 
discoveries of Columbus. The followers of the meek and lowly 
Savior belonged to the southern climes of Europe and Asia. They 
were of the classes of men to whom Christ gave the edict *' Go 
ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature." 
When he sent them forth he gave them a line of service which the 
white men of to-day have failed to follow. He said: *' Provide 
neither gold nor silver nor brass In your purses. Nor scrip for 
your journey, neither two coats, neither shoes nor yet staves; for 
the workman is worthy of his meat . ' ' 

If the churchmen of to-day were required, at final judgment, 
to conform to the edict of the Great Master, it is to be feared that 
the bottomless pit would be inhabited by whites and blacks in pro- 
portion to their numerical order, without reference to their means 
of education. Educational lines would be a reproach to the white 
race. Then the golden rule might be amended to read: " Do unto 
others as ye have done unto them." 

REV. HARVEY JOHNSON. 

In Fauquier county, Virginia, August 4, 1843, Harvey 
Johnson entered upon existence, the son of slave parents. He 
happened to belong to a class of people willing to accord to their 
servants an exercise of religious freedom, even though they were 
unable to enjoy personal freedom. He remained in slavery until 
the days of the war, and when federal troops took possession of 
the surroundings of Washington, Mr. Johnson found no difficulty 
in going within the union lines, where he had the protection of 
the federal troops. Afterwards he took a course of study at the 
Wayland seminary, in the city of Washington, supported by anti- 
slavery friends. In 1872 he began to preach, and in the fall of 
that year lie was called to the Union Baptist church at Baltimore, 
Maryland. He occupies the pulpit of that church to-day. He is 
an educated minister of tlie gospel, has an interesting family, and 




REV, HARVEX JOHNSON, 



96 yaughan's plea for the old slaves. 

he is exerting his utmost efforts to promote the negro race in the 
social and. religious scale. 

Mr . Johnson is in no sense a politician . His professional work 
occupies his whole time, coupled with a devoted interest in the 
cause of education. He is doing all that his soul and body can 
endure to make his people known and honored among men. His 
logic, his eloquence and his devout spirit, would introduce life 
into many a white congregation, provided he could spread a 
mask over his facial anatomy and pose before the people as a fair 
skinned person. Verily, the face of the Lord in eclipse is antago- 
nistic to the accomplishment of the salvation of souls. The loyal 
white element is not disposed to trend unto salvation by the side 
of the negro who has faith in God. 

rev. professor holmes. 

In contradistinction to most of the people of the black race, 
who started in life under adverse circumstances. Prof. Holmes is 
an example of the fact that man 3^ southern masters were just and 
humane. He is still a young man, comparatively speaking, and 
will probably be able to do much for the advancement of his race 
before he ceases his life of labor and devotion to the cause of his 
people. It has been a favorite theory since the war to represent 
the southern people as brutal and inhuman in the treatment of 
their slaves, but Prof. Holmes is a living example of the fact that 
many educated men of the African race will voluntarily stand up 
and testify to the contrary. 

William E. Holmes was born at Augusta, Georgia, January 
22, 1856. He was a slave. His father belonged to one master 
and his mother to another. They lived for a while on adjacent 
I)lantations and were not forbidden fariiily privileges. Their 
association was harmonious, and their social relations were not 
disturbed until the mother of Holmes was hired abroad to a con- 
tracting carpenter, a man of generous feelings and impulses, who 
gave her large personal libert}" . The carpenter took a liking to 
the son of his hired employe and made him a favorite. He went 
with his master in all his travels, and had a bed in the family 
mansion as well as a place at the familj'^ table. Still the master was 
not in favor of the abolition of involuntary slavery. 

Mr. Holmes had the advantage of books and papers, and at 
an early age became a fair scholar. Aftei« the close of the war the 
devoted mother gave her son the advantage of good instruc- 
tion from 1865 to 1871. He became a proficient scholar. 



a'aughan's tlea for the old slaves. 97 

Having united with the Baptist church, Mr. ^olnles renewed 
his studies at the Augusta Institute and the Atlanta Seminary, 
where he graduated in 1881. He had already been ordained to 
preach, but he continued his studies at Yale University for two 
years, making a specialty of the study of the Hebrew language. 
He was made corresponding secretary of the Missionary Baptist 
convention of Georgia in May, 1883, and since that date he has 
wrought earnestly for the upbuilding of his church and his race in 
the South. He is recognized as a ripe scholar, a deep thinker, and 
his lectures have received a wide admiration. 

Prof. Holmes is a truly pious man, a scholar and a worker. 
He does not make his labor a specialty for his race, but takes in 
his line of study and assistance all the men of the world. His 
heart is as big as the universe though his color is black. May 
God give to the world many men like Prof. Holmes. 

REV. R. B. VANDERVALL. 

This gentleman first saw the light of day near Nesley's Bend, 
on the Tennessee river, about ten miles above the city of Nash- 
ville. His father was a Virginia slave, owned by a man named 
Carroll Foster. His mother was a slave woman, the -property of 
one Major Hall, who emigrated from Virginia to Tennessee and 
settled about ten miles above the city, of Nashville. The Rev. Dr. 
Vandervall is now about 59 years old. 

AYhen seven years old the little boy Vandervall was hired out 
at public sale, on New Year's day, pursuant to a statute then pre- 
vailing in Tennessee. He had never lived in a white family, and 
when an old man came to him saying, "Come with me," the boy 
was badly frightened. He was snatched from his mother's arms, 
placed on a horse bare-back and made to ride twenty-two miles 
across the country . He was thus ruthlessly cut loose from all the 
dear ties of earth . 

In his new abode the poor boy, who had neither home nor 
name, was made to sleep at night rolled up in a piece of rag car- 
pet, where he cried himself to sleep night after night. In time he 
became accommodated to his situation . He slept in the house with 
the white family, and repeated the prayer nightly taught by his 
slave mother. He enjoyed one privilege — he was allowed to at- 
tend school. 

When ten years old the poor boy was taken to Nashville , where 
he was hired to a minister of the gospel named Garrett. While re- 
siding there the estate of his old master, who had died, was par- 




REV. R. B. VANDEWALL, 



vaughan's plea for the old slaves. 9t 

titioned. He was purchased by Mr. Vandervall, whose name he 
continues to bear. 

John Vandervall, the son of the master, took a liking to the 
lad and continued the instruction that had been begun by Mr. Gar- 
rett. He had a religious turn of mind and attended weekly prayer 
meetings, where he prayed and began to exhort. He took a wife 
and began to *work on a railroad , so that he might pass a part of 
his time with his companion in the journey of life, but his master 
found that he could read and write, and feared his intelligence. 
He threatened to sell him south. The consequence was the young 
man ran away. He afterwards returned home and was hired to a 
man at Nashville on his own terms, paying his master $200 a year 
for the privilege. 

About this time Mr. Vandervall had a queer dream. He 
thought he was sold to a cotton planter, and, fearing that the 
dream would come to a reality , he made a proposition to his mas- 
ter for his own purchase. The offer was accepted, and he paid a 
stipulated sum every year. When he had paid loOO his master 
made a bargain to sell him into Texas. He ran away a second 
time . 

This time friends intervened and the money for his purchase 
was paid. He took the advantage of his freedom, educated him- 
self and began to preach. He afterward undertook the purchase 
of his wife, and had made the last annual payment for her liberty 
when the civil war broke out, which would have given her 
freedom . 

Perhaps the most remarkable instance of delivery from servi- 
tude is to be found in the case of Dr. Vandervall. After the war 
he settled in East Tennessee and took a lively interest in the educa- 
tion of his race. He continued his own culture and has taken 
high rank in the institutions of the South for the education of the 
colored race. He has earned and received several educational de- 
grees . Mr . Vandervall has two sons who are ripe scholars . 

The case of this noble gentleman of color affords a notable in- 
stance of success under difficulties. If ever a pension was deserved 
it is in his case. He is to-day modestly pursuing the avocation 
of a cultured Christian minister. 

JOHN R. LYNCH. 

The history of the negro race abounds with cultured orators 
whose electricity has astonished the world. Among those who 
have established a name and a fame within the United States, no 
man is entitled to prominence above that ^f John R. Lynch. 



100 YAUGHAX'S PLEA FOR THE OLD SLAVES. 

The south has produced a colored citizen, in the person of Mr. 
L3mch , who has maintained his manhood , to the honor of his race 
and his own place in histor}'' . 

John R. Lynch was born in Concordia parish, Louisiana, Sep- 
tember 10, 1847. He was a slave and continued in the life of a 
slave until he was freed by the acts of emancipation. He had no 
education in early life, and emerged from the reign of despotism 
in utter ignorance of the qualities God had given him . But the 
light cannot be hidden completely-, even when it is under a bushel 
measure. In the face of his training as a field hand, Mr. Lynch 
has risen to eminence, and is to-day recognized as a power within 
the land. 

When the union troops took possession of the city of Natchez , 
his mother, who had saved some meaijs, gave her son the benefit 
of private instruction. He made himself acquainted with the 
written history of ancient and modern times. His first venture 
in business was in photography. While operating a gallery in 
Natchez Gov. Ames appointed him a justice of the peace at 
Natchez. In the fall of 1869 he was elected to the legislature of 
Mississippi. He was re-elected in 1871, and was made speaker of 
the house of representatives near the close of the session. From 
the state legislature he was made a member of congress, and 
served in the Fort3^-third and Forty-fourth congresses. He was 
again elected, fairl}^, to the Forty-seventh congress, and contested 
the seat of the despicable General Chalmers, of infamous Fort 
Pillow memor}^ . 

While awaiting a report of his case on the part of the house 
committee on privileges and elections for the Forty-seventh con- 
gress, Mr. Lynch was one day found walking along Pennsjdvania 
avenue, of the city of Washington, by a gentleman who had 
frequently observed his familiar figure. He was hailed and this 
question asked of him: 

"Can 3-0U tell me, my man, where I can find a competent 
carriage driver ? I prefer a colored man." 

Mr. Lynch said he was not aware of au}^ person needing such 
emplo3'ment, but there were doubtless many such, and he promised 
to make inquir^^, at the same time making a note of the gentle- 
man's name and address. 

"You seem to be prett}- well informed as to the localities of 
Washington and Georgetown, as I often see you moving around. 
AVliy cannot I employ you? Evidently you are out of a job. 
AVhat are you doiiii^ anyhow ? " 



vaughan's plea for the old slaves. 101 

*' You are right in saying I am out of a job just now," was 
the reply of Mr. Lynch, "but I hope to have one pretty soon. I 
am contesting the seat of Gen. Chalmers in congress and think I 
am very liable to get it . " 

The inquirer looked at the negro in a surprised manner, and 
then remarked: "I supposed I was talking to a 'nigger' and not 
to a statesman . Times seem to have changed . Good day . ' ' 

He walked off with a bug in his ear. 

When the national republican convention met in Chicago in 
1884, Mr. Lynch was made temporary chairman of that body, 
beating Powell Clayton, ex-senator from Arkansas, for the honor. 
He is the only negro who ever presided over a national conven- 
tion of any party within the United States. His knowledge of 
parliamentary law, acquired while speaker of the house of repre- 
sentatives of Mississippi, stood him in good place. He ruled 
decorously, wisely and acceptably. 

Mr. Lynch is married to a southern colored lady, and manages 
a plantation in the vicinity of Natchez with credit and profit to 
himself and family. He is moving quietly in private life, but is 
likely to resume political life at any moment. He is respected 
and honored by all who know him, whites and blacks alike. 

JOHN M. LANGSTON. 

There lives to-day at Petersburg, Ya., a gentleman of distinc- 
tion, though of negro blood, who deserves the high regard of his 
countrymen who admire true greatness whether clothed in a white 
or black skin. John M. Langston was born in Louisa county, 
Virginia, December 14, 1829. He bears in his veins the blood of 
three races of men — the negro , the Indian and the Anglo-Saxon ; 
but his mother was a slave and in pursuance of the edict of the 
law made by white men he was born in slavery, although his 
father was his master. He bears the name of his father and dif- 
fers from many of his fellow slaves of other days in this — that he 
was not emancipated by circumstances growing out of the war of 
the rebellion, but was made free by the last will and testament of 
his master, and that instrument made provision for his education. 
He does not, perhaps, fall within the classes designed to be sup- 
plied with a pension under the Yaughan ex-slave pension bill, but 
he presents such an illustrious instance of great ability and force 
of character, and as one of the men who have been ranked as 
negroes , that it is meet and proper that he should receive an honor- 
able mention among the noble men who have sought to raise the 



102 yaughan's flea for the old slaves. 

black race to a position of deserved respect and prominence. On 
his mother's side Mr. Langston lays claim to the distinction of 
naving descended from Pocahontas — a distinction that he divides 
with many high-born Virginia families. 

Made free by virtue of his father's will, John M. Langston 
was sent in early life to Ohio with a view of receiving proper 
instruction. He was received as a student at Oberlin College in 
1844 and graduated from that university in 1849. He was thus 
launched upon the sea of life a free man of liberal education fully 
thirteen years before Abraham Lincoln issued his first proclama- 
tion of emancipation. After his graduation at Oberlin Mr. 
Langston made application for admission to a law school at Ballston 
Spa, near Saratoga, managed by Prof. J. W. Fowler. He was 
denied admission on account of his color! Liasmuch as his facial 
appearance and other prominent features did not mark his origin, 
he was advised by friends to claim that he was a Spaniard, hailing 
from the West Lidies or South America, so that he might secure 
matriculation in the law school. But his better judgment rebelled 
against any attempt at decei^tion. Mr. Langston turned away 
from Ballston with a sad heart in order that he might try his for- 
tunes elsewhere. He met with another rebuff at the Cincinnati 
law school, and then concluded to read law in the office of some 
private instructor. But in this field of learning he met with 
scarcely better success. 

After repeated failure to secure a student's place in a private 
law office, Mr. Langston obtained the loan of some elementary 
works from the library of Hon. Sherlock J. Andrews, of Cleve- 
land, and began a system of self-instruction, receiving occasional 
suggestions from and making recitations to his preceptor. But 
this method of instruction was so unsatisfactory and was attended 
with so many difficulties that Mr. Langston finally concluded to 
abandon the law. He returned to his old alma mater at Oherlm 
and took a theological course, graduating in that department in 
1053. But his heart was set upon a legal education-; and he finally 
effected an arrangement whereby he entered the law office of Hon. 
Philemon Bliss, at Elyria, Ohio, where he devoted himself to the 
study of law with singular assiduity. In the course of twelve 
months Mr. Langston made application for admission to practice 
in the local courts. The presiding judge selected a committee for 
Ills examination consisting of one whig and two democratic at- 
torneys. The committee was sensibly impressed with Mr. Lang- 
ston 's profound and varied learning, his elementary knowledge of 



vaughan's plea fok the old slaves. 103 

the law being perfect and his general knowledge ec[ual to that of 
a belles-lettres scholar. His admittance to the bar was recom- 
mended, but here the color line was struck to his discomfiture, the 
question of the right of a court to give a certificate to a negro 
having been raised. About this time, however, the supreme court 
of Ohio decided, in an election contest, the term "negro or mu- 
latto'* in the state constitution meant a preponderance of white 
or black blood. In the case of Mr. Langston it was readily shown 
that the preponderance of blood in his veins was white , and there- 
upon the local court made an order that he be sworn as an at- 
torney. He was admitted to the bar October 21, 1854. It la 
doubtful whether any learned lawyer ever had greater difficulties 
in securing admission to practice before the civil courts than thos« 
which environed Mr. Langston in the early part of his career. 

After his admission to the bar, Mr. Langston settled at Brown- 
helm, Lorain county, Ohio, upon a farm, but within a brief time 
was associated with Mr. Hamilton Perry, a profound lawyer, in the 
trial of a cause involving the title to lands. There were no colored 
people in the vicinity. The court, jurors, witnesses and other at- 
torne^^s in the case were white men. Mr. Perry purposely en- 
trusted the management of the cause to his associate, reserving to 
himself only the place of a consulting counsel. The trial of a case 
by a negro lawyer excited widespread local comment and the court 
was filled with spectators. The result of the trial was a sweeping 
victory for John M. Langston. Thereafter his fortune was made. 
Business flowed in upon him, and he had a larger practice than he 
was able to accommodate . 

Mr. Langston 's first appearance as an orator in the political, 
field occurred in 1865. His reputation as a lawyer had been so 
great that he was invited to attend and address the May meeting of 
the American Anti-Slavery Society, in that year, at the City of New 
York. His address was cultured and his eloquence magnetic. At 
the age of 36 years he found himself with a national reputation, 
and his name associated with that aggressive line of heroes whose 
mission was the destruction of African slavery within the United 
States. 

For several years Mr. Langston was intimately connected with 
the cause of education in the State of Ohio, and gave special atten- 
tion to the organization of schools for the education of the colored 
youth of that great state. He held the office of a school visitor by 
appointment, and he traversed from the lakes to the Ohio river, 
organizing schools wherever they were required and secured for 



104 valghan's flea fok the old slaves. 

them a supply of teacliers . He was engaged in this work when the 
war broke out in 1861. He immediately added to his efforts the 
patriotic work of encouraging enlistments for service in the field . 
He was instrumental in recruiting the 54th and 55th regiments of 
Ohio infantry, and after the enlistment of colored troops was per- 
mitted he recruited the 5th colored regiment, to which he presented 
a stand of colors. He visited Washington and asked of Secretary 
Stanton the privilege of recruiting a colored regiment to be of- 
ficered by colored men. His project was endorsed and supported 
by the late James A. Garfield, but was not decided in time to en- 
able him to participate personally in the acts of the war. After 
the war had concluded, in 1867, President Johnson appointed Mr. 
Langston minister to Hayti, but he did not accept the office. The 
same year, on motion of Mr. Garfield, he was admitted to practice 
law before the Supreme Court of the United States. He was at 
that time actively engaged in the organization of freedmen's 
schools under the appointment and instruction of General O . O . 
Howard, and he deemed the work of such importance that he would 
not leave it to go abroad. In this field of labor he continued until 
1869, when was called to the professorship of law in the Howard 
University. He was made dean of the department and gave seven 
of the best years of his life to the up-building of that institu- 
tion. The college has graduated many able law students, white 
and colored, male and female. During two years of his connection 
with the college he was its vice-president and president. The 
degree of L.L. D . was conferred upon him, marked by an impressive 
address from Gen. Howard. 

During the administration of President Grant, it was his pleas- 
ure to name Mr. Langston as a member of the board of health of 
the District of Columbia, and he served six years or more, as the 
attorney of the board, and a part of the time as its secretary. In 
1877 President Hayes appointed him minister resident, and consul 
general to Hayti, about ten years after he had declined a similar 
position under Andrew Johnson. Thisitime he accepted and for 
about eight years did excellent and valuable service in his diplo- 
matic relations. He was very popular at the Haytien Court, and 
stood high with the representatives of all governments represented 
in that republic. 

In January, 1885, Mr. Langston resigned his foreign appoint- 
ment and returned home the following summer, intending to 
resume the practice of his profession. He found, however, that he 
had been chosen, by the board of education of Virginia, president 



vaughan's plea for the old slaves. 105 

of the Virginia Normal School and Collegiate Institute, and a 
large annual appropriation was made for the maintenance of the 
institution . His success in managing this great university has been 
phenomenal, and has called forth the highest enconiums of those 
associated with him, and of the state officers of Virginia. 

In 1888 Mr. Langston was induced, much against his will, to 
accept a nomination for congress in the Petersburg district and 
would have unquestionably have been elected by a large majority 
but for the antipathy of the friends of Gen. Mahone, who induced 
Mr. R. W. Arnold to run as an independent republican candidate 
against him. According to the official returns Mr. E.G. Venable 
(dem.) received 13,299 votes in the district ; Mr. John M. Lang- 
ston (regular rep.) received 12,657 votes, and Mr. R. W. Arnold 
(ind. rep.) received 3,207 votes. For reasons not necessary here 
to state, Mr. Langston contested the seat of Mr. Venable, and the 
contest was decided in Mr. Langston 's favor September 23, 1890. 
It is understood that Mr. Langston 's contest was impeded by the 
active opposition of Gen. Mahone and his friends. 

Among the men who have risen from the cradle of slavery to 
eminence none stand higher than Mr. Langston. He is a noble 
product of our free and liberal institutions. There is a brilliant 
life yet awaiting him. 

CONCLUSION OF SKETCHES. 

It would be impracticable, in the space allotted to a volume 
like the one in hand, to include even a brief sketch of the many 
distinguished descendants of African parents, who have been born 
in slavery but who have carved for themselves an enduring repu- 
tation in subsequent lives of honor and successful struggle 
against the untoward circumstances of their birth. It would be a 
pleasure to narrate the achievements of such a man as the Rev . 
W.J. Simmons, who distinguished himself as a Christian minister 
and a man of letters. While discharging the duties of the presi- 
dency of the State University at Louisville, Ky., Dr. Simmons 
wrote and published a volume entitled "Men of Mark : Eminent, 
Progressive and Rising,'' which is almost invaluable as a delinea- 
tion of those negro men of ability who have honored their race in 
every department of life. There have been very many others who- 
have emerged from the barbarism of slavery, and through trials 
and dangers, equal to the sufferings of the children of Israel dur- 
ing their forty years of wanderings in desert and wilderness , they 
have come forth at last to benefit the human race. It may seem 
unfair to omit honorable mention of any of them , put the purpose 



106 vaughan's plea for the old slaves. 

in view is not to praise, but to make a plea for justice, long de- 
layed , and in doing so to satisfy the general reader that the sons 
of slavery have earned a recognition in the lives and services 
of those of their number who have been able to outgrow the con- 
ditions surrounding their birth, and to become useful to the world 
in their day and generation. 

Perhaps it may be said that the writer of these pages has 
singled out a few illustrious examples, and that comparatively few 
negroes could, under any circumstances, cope with Dr. Simmons, 
Frederick Douglass, John M. Langston, John R. Lynch, Robert 
B. Elliott, Robert Smalls, Samuel R. Lowery, John Wesley Terry 
and others, some of whom have been biographically sketched in 
these pages, while it has not been convenient to make creditable 
mention of all of them. Such, indeed, may be the fact. It would 
possibly be right to go one step farther , and to say that even the 
advantages of learning and fortune would not fit all negroes to 
rank with the men whose names have been mentioned. But be- 
cause all of the dusky race cannot rise to eminence in the learned 
professions, in skilled trades or in the strife of arms, it does not 
follow that a great nation should refuse to those of the race a 
proper recognition for their lives of toil who have been held in 
bondage for years , and even for generations , and who have finally 
been turned loose by that nation to starve and die without any re- 
sources whatever. 

Those captious critics who would suffer the ex-slaves to look 
upon their freedom from involuntary servitude as a full and com- 
plete recompense for their former years of captivity, because all 
of them have not shown their capacity to become statesmen and 
scholars, are reminded that comparatively few white men, though 
free from birth, have been able to claim a rank with AYashington, 
Jefferson, Madison, Clay, Webster, Calhoun, Irving, Bryant, 
Longfellow, Bancroft, Whittier and hundreds more, living and 
dead, who have given renown to our country in statesmanship, 
literature, science and arms. Yet courts, congress and legislatures 
have always been ready to award a full measure of damages to 
white men who have suffered wrong in any way at the hands of 
the nation, the states or the people. Only in the case of the negro 
do we find an indisposition to right a wrong that has followed the 
sad fortunes of that race from the time when their forefathers 
were dragged unwilling captives to American soil and loaded down 
with the galling chains of slavery. The error is as old as the gov- 
ernment — yea, older than that — it began with the discovery of the 



vaughan's plea for the old slaves. 107 

western hemisphere and has continued unto the present day, in 
«pite of the work of emancipation which bade the black man lift up 
his head and snuff the air of liberty as the natural right of man . 
But liberty without compensation for the long era of slavish toil 
is but a mockery of justice. 

In how many instances has the book of time recorded the fact 
that some poor mortal has been made the victim of a chain of cir- 
cumstances which dragged him from his home to become the inmate 
of a prison cell ? In the lapse of time his innocence was established. 
The state made haste to unbar the prison doors and set the victim 
free. In all such cases a reparation for the wrong of imprisonment 
has been made from the public treasury. And the money value, 
fixed as a recompense for the years of anguish, torture and im- 
prisonment, has been gauged by a liberal if not a lavish hand. It 
was due to the victim of the law's mistake, that he should be treat- 
ed with a generosity commensurate with the injustice he suffered 
on the part of the state when it laid ibs hand upon him in error 
and branded him as a felon stained wi^h crime. 

If the state stands ready to o^er liberal remuneration to the 
citizen who has suffered a term of imprisonment in obedience to an 
error of a court of justice, how much the more ready should a 
great government always be to repair its error in holding a count- 
less class of its subjects in the horrors of vassalage during genera- 
tion after generation of mankind ? In the one case the prisoner 
was suspected of a crime which subsequent events domonstrated he 
did not commit. In the other case there was not even an unjust 
suspicion of wrong-doing upon which the torture of captivity could 
be exercised. The misfortune of caste alone served the purpose 
of burning the brand of slavery upon the backs of myriads of 
human beings. Might was law and right was not recognized. 
The toil, the sweat, the groans, the tears, and even the blessings 
of years of human slavery, stand up in a line together and appeal 
to the congress of the United States to be just to the injured men 
and women of the Negro race who have born the heat and burden 
of the era of slavery, and who have lost home and fireside in 
answer to a prayer for human freedom ! 

Incidental to the advancement made by former subjects of 
slavery, since the acquirement of their freedom, it may be stated 
that the free people of color within the United States have presented 
some notable examples of eminence in various departments of 
life ; and the success of such persons has unquestionably wrought 
-a wholesome influence upon the brightest of the negroes who 



108 vaughan's plea for the old slaves. 

emerged from slavery. Animated by the knowledge that persons 
of their own color had acquired property, in a measure that gave 
them prominence and respectability, the freedmen who were 
ambitious of making the most of their new condition, made haste 
to secure education and then to apply that education in a practical 
and beneficent manner. Of course the plea for a pension to be 
granted to the freedmen of the former slave states does not apply 
to those persons of color who have been free from their birth. 
But no class of men will rejoice more heartily than negroes who 
have never been slaves to see ample justice done to their fellow 
men who have endured the distress of slavery in former days. In 
the days of the great civil war, when the first gleam of the sunlight 
of liberty seemed about to pierce the black cloud of bondage, all 
over the North and in many parts of the South, the first rays of 
political independence were watched for eagerly and welcomed with 
glad alacrity by no association of men with the same solicitude 
that characterized the free men of color . While universal freedom 
would add nothing to their well-being, except to extend their lines 
of usefulness and to enable them to enter upon a larger arena in 
the pursuit of commercial and business avocations, they had that 
natural love and affection for the people of their race that their 
hearts swelled with feelings of gratitude, patriotism and true 
christian devotion at the prospect of personal liberty throughout 
the land to all the inhabitants thereof. And when at last the edict 
went forth which surrendered the shackles of nearly six millions 
of human beings into the giant grasp of Abraham Lincoln, the 
anthem of praise and the voice of thanksgiving swelled up from 
the hearts of the free men of color in every part of the land with 
an enthusiasm that bespoke them a happy people, devoutly thank- 
ful to Almighty God for the boundless favor of freedom to all 
mankind without regard to race, color or previous condition of 
bondage . 

That the goodly example of the best element of the original 
free negro population has had much to do in the amelioration of 
the condition of the ex-slaves there can be no manner of doubt or 
question. The history of the United States abounds with the 
glorious work of such noble men of the African race as Rev. W. B. 
Derrick, J). D., Rev. James A. D. Pond (deceased), Rev. Theodore 
Doughty Miller, D.D., Rev. Henry W. Chandler, and many other 
christian ministers of the gospel; J. D. Baltimore who had a high 
reputation as a mechanical engineer; and a musical composer of the 
ability of Henry F. Williams; such distinguished lawyers as James 



VAUGHAX'S PLEA FOR THE OLD SLAVES. 109 

C. Matthews, who was Mr. Cleveland's register of deeds at Wash- 
ington , Alexander Clark, Prof. T. McC. Stewart, and a score of 
others of the same profession, dozens of distinguished physicians, 
and hosts of the ablest teachers in the land. In proportion to 
their number it may be seriously questioned whether there can be 
found within the confines of this great American union of states a 
more talented body of men than the professional and scientific 
citizens of color who were free from their childhood. In the race 
of progress they have kept even with the rapid advance of civili- 
zation, and during the last quarter of a century they have stimu- 
lated manhood, education and social eminence among their brethren 
released from the thraldom of slavery. While, not beneficiaries 
themselves of the proposed act for the pension of freedmen it is 
very certain that the ex-slaves will not rejoice more heartily than 
the free men of color over the passage of such a just and righteous 
statute . 

It may be safely assumed that the more the proposition shall be 
discussed, to extend a just and equitable system of pensions to the 
persons who were restrained of their natural liberty during a 
large portion of their lives, the greater favor it will find with all 
rational and thinking men. It has been very justl}^ remarked in 
moral philosophy that ' ' there is no excellence without great 
labor." It may also be said that no reform was ever proposed in 
government without encountering the severest criticism and oppo- 
sition of ignorance, as well as of that class of capitalists who berate 
any act of justice which is likelj'^ to call for an assessment for taxa- 
tion upon their stores of wealth. It is to be expected that the 
proposition to pension ex-slaves of this Republic will call forth 
bitter opposition, intense efforts at ridicule and sarcasm, and in 
many instances the most disgusting ribaldry and even obscenity. 
In truth the work of misrepresentation and detraction has actually 
begun . 

Such newspapers as the Chicago Herald, the Nashville Ameri- 
can, and the Cleveland Leader, have opened their batteries already, 
and while the style of objection is different in the several prints, 
the objective point is the same in every case — the vast expense to 
the tax-payers attendant upon the passage of an ex-slave pension 
law , In some instances it has been asserted that it will entail upon 
the federal treasury a tax of two hundred billion dollars within 
the next thirty years ! Could an3'thin^ be more ridiculous ? Why, 
estimating the number of slaves emancipated from bondage at five 
millions , and if all of them were alive to-da}^ , and the government 



110 vaughan's plea for the old slaves. 

should pay into their hands a thousand dollars apiece, the total 
sum of the payment would only be five billion dollars, or one- for- 
tieth of the sum it has been gravely stated the passage of the pro- 
posed pension law will entail upon the government in thirty years 
time ! As a fact, it may be said, the whole amount this pension 
act may call for will not amount to a tenth part of five billions. 

But it is not the purpose of the writer to enter into an argu- 
ment with the phantasy of a diseased or deluded brain. An appeal 
to logic and facts will be maintained in the face of derision. The 
enormous expense account attendant upon the passage of a just 
measure is not likely to frighten any person who desires to see the 
integrity of this great nation maintained in purity and reality. 
Had the people of the several states stopped to figure in 1861, 
when the shore batteries at Charleston were opened upon Fort 
Sumter, and had their cupidity exceeded their patriotism, it is 
probable there never would have been another shot fired after 
Major Robert Anderson and his gallant little band had made their 
surrender. But the expense attached to the maintenance of the 
war was not taken into account. Neither were the people appalled 
at a contemplation of the rivers of blood that must flow, the homes 
that must be made desolate, the dreary waste that must follow in 
the wake of contending armies, nor the millions that would 
be expended, year after year, for the pensions of union sol- 
diers and their dependent families. After the lapse of nearly 
thirty years it is now found that the pension roll is many millions 
greater than it was when the angel of peace spread its wings over 
the land and put an estoppel upon the effusion of blood. 

The questions to be decided are these: Was the act of emanci- 
pation right ? Did the emancipation turn millions of slaves from 
homes of comfort into a condition of penury and want ? Has the 
freedom of the negro entailed poverty upon the aged and helpless 
and made many of them the inmates of alms-houses and the sub- 
jects of public charity ? If so, what is the plain duty of a great 
government to the helpless creatures whom it once rated as chattel 
property and compelled the taxation of their bodies for the support 
of the state ? 

These questions will have to be answered in the calmness of 
reason and not in the ribaldry of a cruel jest. Once presented 
fairly to the sober second thought of a justice-loving people,, and 
the voice of humanity will speak to the hearts of the people, bid- 
ding them to do right at every hazard. 



vaughan's plea for the old slaves. Ill 

It has been already said that great reforms move slowly. But 
when they have once begun to move, there is no such thing as 
staying their onward march. When James Gr. Birney was first 
made the presidential candida^te of the old liberty party in 1840, 
he received barely more than 7,000 votes in all the United States. 
He was a candidate again in 1844 and received 62,000 votes. The 
anti-slavery sentiment had begun to grow. Sixteen years later it 
swept the land, carrying down the old political organizations before 
it. It was persistent discussion that accomplished such a result. 
So will it be in the matter of righting the wrongs which our nation 
has suffered to exist. No ridicule, or denunciation, or effort to 
affright timid capital will be able to call a halt. The work in 
hand is right, and the right must and will prevail. 



ADDRESS. 

An open address to the Congressional Committee that now has, or 
that may hereafter have, the Ex-Slave Pension Bill before it for 
consideration, let me say: 

Gentlemen of the Committee: — In asking consideration for 
the rough draft of an act, which I conceive to be just, having in 
view the pensioning of freedmen who have become old since they 
acquired their freedom in pursuance of the two proclamations of 
ex-President Lincoln and of the acts of congress and of the conven- 
tions of sovereign states whereby an enslaved people were made 
free, I have to say, that you will find much to be added and a 
wide range for an interchange of opinions as to the methods that 
ought to be observed in putting such an important work into 
successful operation. The principal thought involved is justice 
towards a once enslaved race, and to afford a people who have been 
made citizens and participants in the affairs of the government, 
with the means of competing with their fellow men of other races 
and better surroundings in the combat of life. As long as these 
people were regarded as chattels — the hewers of wood and the 
drawers of water for those who chanced to be placed above them 
in the circumstances of life — their physical comfort was looked 
after by those who received the direct benefit of their manual labor . 
But in the course of human events these men have been made free, 
and they have started in the i^ce of life in competition with a race 
that has never suffered the horrors and injustice of subjugation. 
It may be apparent to you, gentlemen, that in such a race th* 
negro suffers an unspeakable disadvantage. To expect that he 



112 VAUGHAX'S PLEA FOE THE OLD SLAVES. 

would be able to perform well the part assigned to him in his new 
condition, is giving him credit for a superiorit}^ that does not 
attach to human existence. It was honorable to the government 
to accord him his freedom at a time when the life of the nation 
appeared to tremble in the balance, but that he should have made 
the very best use of freedom for the advancement of his own weal 
and that of his late fellow slaves was scarcely to have been ex- 
pected. The wonder is, that he has done as well for himself as 
we observe him to have accomplished. Perhaps the white race, 
similarly circumstanced, could not have done more. 

You will admit, gentlemen, that the government did not make 
the bondmen free from downright good will. It has been a boon 
accorded to the down-trodden because in the sturdy forms and 
physical strength of millions of slaves an element was seen that 
might be made useful in the suppression of a gigantic rebellion. 
It was manifestly the right and duty of those entrusted with the 
administration of the government, to make use of those means 
which God and nature had placed within their power. Even Pres- 
ident Lincoln, at the outset of the rebellion, said that if he could 
maintain the union bj^ saving the institution of slaver}^, that he 
would save it. But he found that the salvation of the union 
depended largely upon the destruction of that institution, and he 
struck the blow that surel}^ destro3^ed it. Since then congress has 
habilitated the freedmen with the right of franchise, and has opened 
to him the avenues of preferment. What the Negro lacks is the 
means placed in his hands that will enable him, and those that 
come after him, to hold up their heads and take a part in the avo- 
cations of life that will be honorable and just to an enfranchised 
race. This, gentlemen, congress can do b}^ the passage of the bill 
before you into a law, after 3'our wisdom and experience shall have 
perfected its details, and surrounded it with such safeguards as will 
make it a prudent law for the colored citizens, while the federal 
treasury will be sufficiently protected from fraud. 

AVhen the southern slaves were recognized as chattel property, 
subject to all the fluctuations of an article that possessed a market- 
able value, the}' were made the subjects of taxation, and as such 
contributed their share of revenue to the treasury, in one shape 
and another, enabling the government to declare war, conclude 
peace and to contract alliances. After liaA^ng lieen the subject of 
taxation for the benefit of the government, that government has 
seen fit to st'-ike tlie shackles from the limbs of the slave and to 
convert Hie cliatteJ into c\ citizen. As a chattel, surrounded by an 



yaughan's plea for the old slaves. 113 

implacable bondage, that could encompass no work but the service 
expected from vassalage, the negro could make no demand upon 
the government. Having been made a citizen without the asking 
of such a boon , it is the citizen that now arises and asks the gov- 
ernment of which he is a part, to do by him that degree of justice 
that will enable him to perform an honorable part in life . Place 
in his hands the means to rival the white race and then judge him 
by the fruits of his afterwork. The bill before your committee, 
gentlemen, will go a long way in the direction of doing fairness 
and justice. 

Sut there is another view of this question that is entitled to 
your candid consideration . Much of the prosperity that has attended 
northern communities since the conclusion of hostilities between 
the North and South, growing out of the late civil war, has come 
about in consequence of the quarterly distribution of pension 
money voted by congress to the surviving union soldiery. That 
source of prosperity has not extended to the southern states in a 
very large degree. Comparatively few union soldiers were enlisted 
at the South, and the number who have become residents of that 
section since the war make up but a light percentage of the general 
population. The passage of a measure that would place former 
slaves upon the pension rolls would not only be the performance 
of a delayed act of justice, to a once enslaved race, but it would 
occasion an expenditure of treasure throughout the entire southern 
region that would visibly enhance the material prosperity of all 
classes of people within that section. So it appears that every 
consideration of enlarged wisdom and political economy calls aloud 
for the passage of some such law as it is now your province to 
consider . 

In conclusion, gentlemen, permit me to say that all great and 
generous nations have been ready and willing to make a valuable 
recompense for the wrongs they have perpetrated towards other 
nations or to individuals for errors of administration or acts of 
wrong or oppression . Indemnity between great states and growing 
out of a condition of war has been the rule of the world. Our 
own country exacted vast tribute from Mexico because of the war 
that raged in 1846 and 1847. The possession by us of California 
and the vast territories adjacent came to us in that way. France 
emptied into the coffers of Germany a nearly fabulous wealth in 
the settlement of their last appeal to arms. Great Britain did not 
hesitate to reimburse the people of this country with fifteen mil- 
lions of money for the ravages committed upon American com- 



114 VArGHAX's PLEA FOR THE OLD SLAVES. 

merce during the existence _of our civil war. But these things 
were not a tithe of the error endured for ages by the enslaved 
people of these states. VTe have sought in a measure to remedy 
that error, but the remedy" so far provided onh' exhibits to public 
gaze the enormity of the wrong patiently endured, and for which 
the pending measure provides more complete and ample satisfac- 
tion. As we measure justice to a wronged race of people so it may 
be meted to us again should the hour of extremity ever come. 



AN OPEN ADDRESS. 

To the colored citizens of the United States born in. slavery mid liber- 

■ ated by means of general emancipation : 

Fellow Citizens: — Though not a member of Congress, 
charged with the enactment of laws for the weal of all citizens of 
our common countiy irrespective of race, class or condition, I am, 
nevertheless, one who has given the subject of your emancipation 
a candid study and considerable earnest thought, especially with 
respect to the changes it has entailed upon yoM and your progeny^ 
and the just obligations which the government has assumed or 
ought to have assumed in extending to your race the boon of 
being made freemen. As one of the results of such thought and 
investigation, I have prepared and had presented in Congress, 
through the medium of my direct representative, a bill, which, in 
my estimation, will make substantial progress in conferring upon 
3^ou the proper benefits of freedom and enable the ^^ounger 
generation to perform well their part in the high field of 
usefulness, wherein they have been made actors and participants. 
I am not prepared to say that the bill in question covers all the 
minutijB of a comprehensive and intelligent law, but in general I 
hope the benefits designed to be conferred are set forth with 
such precision as to be comprehensible in respect to the intent and 
purpose of the proposed act. Deficiencies can be readily supplied 
and errors — if found to exist — can easil}'' be remedied. The 
main object in view will readily appear even to the most casual 
observer, and I am persuaded that reflection and observation will 
commend the measure to the approval of the sober second thought 
of the people. 

The general tenor of the bill i)resented to Congress and to the 
people for the first time, comprehends the pensioning by the 
government of such of the African race as were born in bondage 



vaughan's plea for the old slaves. 115' 

and have been made free by the Emancipation Proclamation of 
Ex-President Lincoln and the laws of the United States and of the 
several states of the Union where slavery formerly existed, organic 
and statutory, which have been passed in pursuance of those 
proclamations or consistently therewith. In shaping such a law 
it has appeared just to me that a bonus in a suitable sum should 
be given to those older persons who stood the brunt of years of 
serfdom, and who in the order of nature have not long to remain 
amongst us in the enjoyment of the blessings of freedom. This 
bonus has been graduated in lesser sums to those recipients who are 
younger in years and whose prospect of longer life it appears to 
be natural to hope for, until a fair monthly stipend is only given 
to those who did not suffer greatly the rigors of unjust laws and 
who have the battle of life before them. As before stated, if 
anything is wanting to make the operation of the proposed law 
uniform and justly fair to the people sought to be benefited, that 
want can easily be supplied when it is found to exist. For the 
present a great work will have been done in case public attention 
can be drawn to the subject in hand and a general approval of the 
body politic secured. 

It is proper for me to say that this subject is not a sudden 
Impulse on my part, and I have not thrust it before the law- 
making power with undue haste. Many j^ears have elapsed since 
the inspiration of the righteousness of some such measure first 
dawned upon my mind and since first I became persuaded that some 
such proceeding was merited and due to a down-trodden people . I 
have ' ' made haste slowly ' * in bringing the subject to public 
attention. Like heroic old David Crockett I wished to " be sure I 
was right and then go ahead." To this end I have canvassed the 
matter dispassionately with many leading and active citizens 
— persons who were informed in public affairs — and have 
corresponded with a great many others who occupy high stations 
in civil life. With surprising uniformity I have found the subject 
to be one that has been new to the people, generally requiring 
thought and investigation to enable them to arrive at a conclusion 
in the premises. In looking over my correspondence, which has 
embraced experienced statesmen and law makers, I have not found 
that any of them have been ready to advance a project that seems 
to me just and equitable, and the performance of which ought not 
to be longer seriously delayed. When President Harrison was in 
the United States Senate I asked his opinion of the scheme now 
laid before Congress, but did not obtain his thorough assent to the 



116 vaughan's plea for the old slaves. 

proposition. Others like unto him were halting between two 
opinions. As years have rolled awa}^ since this matter was brought 
to their attention it is to be hoped that they are now ready to lend 
a helping hand in the promotion and success of a worthy cause. It 
may be that direful opposition will be meted out to the measure 
now brought to the notice of the people, but I am buoyed up in 
my purpose to have it thoroughly agitated by the reflection that 
all great reforms have triumphed over persistent opposition. 

In addressing the colored people directly interested in the 
proposed measure, I wish to enlist them actively in a matter that 
appeals personally to them and theirs. Their correspondence and 
encouragement is solicited, and suggestions looking to the 
furtherance of the scheme, beneficial mainly to them, which is 
now for the first time publicly proposed, are most respectfully 
solicited . 

I have prepared the following petition in order that all 
petitions signed might be alike, and have caused the same to be 
extensively j)ublished and circulated, and reproduce it here that 
3^ou and all friends of justice may carefully read the same, and aid 
me at once in securing signers to Congress, that a great national 
wrong may be righted . 

TO THE PRESS OP THE UNITED STATES. 

Very recently the subscriber sent to all newspapers whereof he had 
knowledge, which make a specialty of representing the sentiments and 
feelings of the African race, either in business, religion or politics, copies 
of "The Omaha Sunday Dsmocrat" containing tlie text of housa bill 
1,119, introduced in congress by Hon. W, J. Connell, of the First Nebraska 
district, at the request of W. R. Vaughan, proposing a pension for ex- 
slaves who were made free by the proclamation of Abraham Lincoln and 
subsequent acts of congress, the same being confirmed by constitutional 
amendments and statutory laws of the several states adopted at later 
dates. In most instances the newspaper organs of the colored people have 
been silent touching a measure of unquestionable justice to the subjects 
of slavery emancipation, probably through a becoming sense of modesty 
on the part of the managers and publishers. 

Believing that the newspaper which appeals directly to negro support 
must have the interest of the race at heart, the subscriber makes no 
hesitation in asking such papers to spread before their readers a petition 
of the general form and sentiment: 



VAUGHAN S PLEA FOR THE OLD SLAVES. 



117 



To THE CONGEESS OF THE UNITED STATES: Believing that the men and 
women who were held in slavery prior to the war of the rebellion are 
entitled to just recompense for their years of involuntary servitude, the 
subscribers appeal to the congress of the United States for the passage of 
"Vaughan's Freedmen's Pension Bill," introduced in congress June 24, 
1890, by the Hon. W. J. Connell, of Nebraska. The measure we conceive 
to be right in spirit, and it bears the evidence of true economy in its 
preparation. It recognizes the right of the claim of freedmen for aid, 
but it leaves them in a condition requiring industry in order that they 
may procure a comfortable and permanent maintenance. Therefore the 
subscribers beg leave to appeal to the humanity of congress in session in 
favor of the passage of the Vaughan Freedmen's Pension Bill. 

Your petitioners will ever pray: 



FAME 



KESTOENCE 






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Petitions similar to the above and other communications may be 
addressed to W. R. Vaughan, either at Omaha, Neb., or Washington, D. C, 
as he proposes to open an office in the latter city at an early day, and all 
communications addressed to Omaha will be forwarded there. Cutout the 
above petition and attach it to a sheet of legal cap paper, or re-write the 
substance of it if deemed best. The work taken in hand will be pursued 
to success or until death shall prevent further effort. 

Will the representative press of the colored race and other newspapers 
friendly to a great cause kindly publish this circular as a matter of news 
and in justice to an oppressed people? It is believed that appropriate 
petitions, once fairly circulated, will be very largely signed. Address, 

W. R, Vaughan, Omaha, Neb., 
Or Washington, D. C. 



118 vaughan's plea for the old slaves. 

AFRICA. 

Concluding an appeal to the congress, the states and the 
people, in behalf of the late subjects of slavery within the United 
States, it is just and fair to the subjects of a once enslaved race, 
to say to the readers of this volume, that it is a popular error 
which writes down the sons and daughters of Africa as barbarians 
from the beginning of time. They were not such, or all history 
is false in what it records of the human race. Speculation as to 
the correctness of the biblical version of the confusion of tongues 
and the separation of races, in the earliest ages of which we have 
any published account, would be vain. That the black race 
inhabited the continent of Africa is a point beyond dispute, but 
that they have always been ignorant, barbarous and brutal, is not 
sustained by any competent authority now extant. On the other 
hand the region of country lying north of the Great Desert is one 
of remote historical account, and it has been the seat of learning, 
science and vast mechanical skill. Egypt, and the country con- 
tiguous to the mouth of the Nile, has a history as old as civiliza- 
tion. But far back of any authenticated narrative of the present 
age, that country was peopled by a race of men cultured in the 
:arts, sciences and useful mechanics, which are the rich heritages 
■of a great, a powerful and a noble people. In the patriarchal 
ages Egypt was aland of corn and wine. When Western Asia 
was the seat of empire, where Abraham built the altar upon which 
to make a sacrifice of his son; where Jacob saw the ladder upon 
which angels were seen descending from heaven to earth, and 
returning to the regions of bliss again; where the brethren of 
Joseph sold him into captivity and sent him as a slave into Egypt, 
and by chance into the palace of the Phariohs; from whence the 
sons of Jacob journeyed to Egypt for bread, when Palestine was 
famishing with hunger, and there found the brother of the striped 
coat, installed in the palace of the king; in that ancient day 
Egypt was the land flowing with milk and honey, while the 
balance of the known world was a barren desert, where Gaunt 
Hunger was the monarch of all he surveyed. 

Within the reign of the Phariohs, or following their control of 
empire, the Pyramids were built, and hecatombs were constructed, 
which have been the wonder of the world. Before the reign of 
the Caesars began at Rome, the seat of civilization was in upper 
Africa. There temples were built, monuments were raised, and 
wonders performed which have excited the admiration of the 



vaughan's plea for the old slaves. 119 

world during subsequent time. Who built the pyramids ? What 
knowledge of mechanics did they possess by means of which solid 
stones, of the dimensions of 40,960 cubic feet, weighing 4,587,520 
pounds, or nearly 2,300 tons, were elevated an hundred feet above 
the surjgace of the earth, and placed in a solid wall? Great men 
did this thing; and if we may believe the instruction of clearly 
convinciQg circumstances these men were Negroes ! 

Whatever may have been the blood of Cleopatra, whose arts 
led captive Mark Antony and defied the authority of the Caesars, 
it cannot be questioned that she followed in the footsteps of the 
ancient Afric princes of Egypt. Although the black races of 
Northern Africa were driven across the desert and despoiled of 
their possessions, so did the power of the white race decline in 
Southern Europe, and the whole world was involved in darkness 
for many generations. It is not true that the Moors and other 
southern races of Europe were the progenitors of civilization in 
Egypt and the Barbary States. On the contrary, the Moors sprang 
from the expelled African races, driven out by internal dissentions 
of which there can be found no adequate account . The barbarism 
of the Negro rose from civil strife, fomented and encouraged by 
the grasping avarice of foreign powers . 

As a grand division of the globe, Africa is the second in point 
of size, only being exceeded by Asia. It is known to current his- 
tory, and will be for perhaps more than a century to come, as "the 
dark continent" and the land of mystery. During the nineteenth 
century a good deal has been done to open it up to us by the enter- 
prise of explorers, the zeal of missionaries, the perseverance of 
commercial speculation and the military aggressions of dominant 
European powers. England, France and Germany are contending 
for the mastery , and the success of either of them means the grad- 
ual extirpation of the savage African nations which have been 
driven from their ancient seats of empire to become the tribal occu- 
pants of more southern regions and sea coast settlements south of 
Sahara. From the ranks of those refugees, as they become in- 
volved in turmoil, one community against another, the pirates 
from Europe have peopled the states of North and South America 
with slaves. 

Even after the explorations of such learned prilgrims in the 
cause of discovery as Mungo Park , David Livingstone and Henry 
M. Stanley, Africa is comparatively an unknown region; but the 
more it is explored the more convincing becomes the settled con- 
clusion that its native population has grown up from scattered 



120 vaughan's plea for the old slates. 

fragments of colonies driven out of the northern region by the 
dread circumstance of war. The extent of its population is un- 
known. Some travelers and writers have estimated the native in- 
habitants to be as low as twenty -five millions of people, while 
others have stated one hundred millions to be too low a figure. All 
agree, however, that the progress of degradation has gradually 
gone forward since the days when the ancient population was driven 
away from home and possessions to become a race of wanderers 
upon the earth. In their first settlement, even in the wilder- 
ness, some of the pioneers carried with them a knowledge of 
mechanic arts and processes which have gradually been lost as the 
cloud of ignorance and superstition settled over the people. They 
built cities, the ruins of which have been found. They had great 
and elaborate works of art, and were successful as agriculturalists. 
There are 3^et to be found evidences of ancient religious training, 
showing that the races sprang from a parentage which believed in 
One Source and Supremacy of Eternal Power. But, as contact 
with the world was forgotten , barbarism became the rule ; and in 
place of an abode of learning and useful arts, "the dark conti- 
nent" has supplied the world with the most lamentable examples 
of human misery and the most hideous instances of crime . As a 
strong community prayed upon a weak, and men and women were 
constantly made captives in war, even the savage heart became 
sated with rapine and butchery; and their reduction of captives to 
a condition of slavery followed just as naturally as the darkness of 
night follows the light of day . 

The spoliation of ordinary robbers and buccaneers did not 
complete the work of African subjugation, the extension of 
primal slave-making having been the work of Christian nations, 
which carried the captives of robber chieftains into foreign lands. 
There the captive of the savage became the slave of the bible 
reading people, who daily blessed God because the creatures of 
bondage had fallen into the hands of pious people able to learn 
them the straight and narrow path that leads to the throne of 
heaven! 

It has been truly remarked of Africa that the dark continent 
presents the singular anomoly of having been the home of ancient 
civilization, and the prey of the modern rapacity and plunder of 
all nations. It is natural, therefore, that in regard to the plun- 
dered portions of this vast area the world should be comparatively 
uninformed, even after the explorations of the last half century, 
which have given a wider knowledge of its physical geography 



taughan's plea for the old slaves. 121 

and of the character of its savage inhabitancy than had hitherto 
been possessed. 

As long ago as the fifteenth century explorers from Portugal 
made tours of examination and discovery along the east and west 
coasts of Africa. In that day Portugal was perhaps the first mar- 
itime power in Europe. The crown gave kingly encouragement to 
tours of discovery . These were prosecuted not only along the shores 
of Africa, in the eastern hemisphere, but extensively in the western 
hemisphere, with respect to North and South America and the 
West India islands, following the first discoveries of Columbus. 
This spirit of adventure gave to Portuguese merchants the advan- 
tage of learning the source of supplying vessels with slaves in 
Africa, and also of knowing a ready and valuable market in the 
new world. But while engaged in their explorations the Portu- 
guese made valuable discoveries, which are of consequence in 
showing that many of the African tribes had maintained a fair 
order of civilization in spite of their forcible expulsion from their 
ancient realm into the savagery of the wilds lying south of the 
equator. Vasco de Gama made a voyage as early as 1497 which 
resulted in the discovery of Natal, Mozambique and a number of 
small islands off the coast of Africa, and in them he found a peo- 
ple which enjoyed a high state of commercial advancement and 
very many of the evidences of civilization which had come to them 
from the reign of Cleopatra and the time wherein the Caesars ruled 
Egypt. With their banishment they had not degenerated into a 
savage state, but had maintained a fair degree of the eminent con- 
dition which pervaded Northern Africa in the palmy days of the 
splendor and refinement of their forefathers. True, they had 
fallen under the influence of the missionaries of Mohammed and 
adopted the faith of the prophet of Allah. But this fact is not 
surprising when it is remembered that the birthplace of Jesus 
Christ has become abject in its acknowledgment of Mohammedan 
rule, while Jerusalem, the city of the Great King, has a Mosque 
on the sacred spot where the Savior once expelled harpies and 
traders from the temple, declaring to them that they had made the 
Father's house a den of thieves. All over the land where the 
Man of Sorrows pursued his earthly ministry, and wrought his 
miracles, the prevailing religion to-day is that of Mohammed. 
No wonder, then, that the followers of the Prophet had extended 
their proselytism to the islands lying along the African coast, 
prior to the time when Vasco de Gama came among them with 
vessels from Portugal having the wings of the sea. 



122 vaughan's plea for the old slaves. 

De Gama found, in the isMnds which he visited, a population 
enjoying all the elegant advantages of well-built cities, ports, 
mosques for the worship of Allah according to the teachings of 
the Moslem faith, and carrying on a valuable trade with India and 
the Spice Islands hy means of rude boats propelled partly with 
oars and partly with sails of native manufacture. Vessels from 
Portugal regularly visited this region for a long series of years 
after the discovery of De Gama, and Portuguese merchants secured 
an affluent trade. In the meantime the news of the discovery 
went abroad, and other European powers established colonies at 
different places on the African coast; so that in the sixteenth cen- 
tury a general examination of the coast line of Africa was made 
from the mouth of the River Senegal, on the west coast, to the 
entrance into the Gulf of Aden on the east coast, being the south 
entrance into the waters of the Red Sea. 

Notwithstanding these advances in matters of African explora- 
tion nearly two hundred jesivs passed away before enterprising 
efforts were made to penetrate the interior of the continent. All 
that had been done amounted to a geographical and mercantile 
exploration of the coast line and the establishment of a few com- 
mercial settlements. The English government effected a settlement 
at the Cape of Good Hope, and with characteristic enterprise 
occupied the territory immediately tributary to their colony. 
From this base of operations that government has spread out its 
work of aggrandizement until it now controls the bulk of the 
African trade. But in all that the agents of the British nation- 
ality have discovered, there has been no fact brought to light 
which will gainsay the theory that the Negro races of Africa, how- 
ever barbarized or unlettered, have not been the descendants 
of a civilized condition of society at some remote era. Those 
tribes which have been most oppressed, and made the subjects of 
incursions by more powerful bands, in the interests of slave 
traders, have sunk deepest into degradation. It is those which 
have been able to maintain a well regulated system of defense, 
and to keep at bay predatory incursionists , that present to 
strangers who have visited them the evidences of natural superi- 
ority and the unmistakable indications of having known a 
better day. 

It was not until 1795 that Mungo Park, an adventursome 
Scotch explorer, who had conceived the idea of breaking the shell 
of outer Africa, and penetrating the interior, with a view of 
learning what might be found there, proceeded to put his enter^ 



taughan's plea for the old slaves. 123 

prise into operation. After two years of hardship and privation 
he returned to Great Britain and published a volume recounting 
his discoveries and hair-breadth escapes, which, for a time, were 
the marvels of the world, surpassing the captivating stories of 
fiction. His narrative was reduced to entertaining simplicity, 
published partially in school books, and in small volumes for the 
attraction of j^outh. But the point with which we mainlj^ have 
to deal is the fact that he found the Mohammedan religion prevail- 
ing along the banks of the Niger, carrying out the idea that even 
the barbarous tribes furnished evidence of having descended from 
a higher plane of life. Mungo Park made a second voyage to 
Africa in 1805, and lost his life by drowning on the upper waters 
of the Niger, where he was ambushed by natives in a narrow pass, 
and sought to escape by swimming to the opposite shore . 

The observations of Mungo Park and the discoveries made by 
him whetted the desire for further information. Denham and 
Clapperton, English merchants, in 1822, fitted out a caravan from 
Tripoli, on the Mediterranean sea, from whence the expedition 
crossed the Great Desert and reached Lake Tchad, on the line 
dividing the districts of Kanem and Bornu, in interior Africa, 
from which point an extensive exploration of contiguous territory 
was made. Thi s expedition confirmedm anv of the thp.orifis of— » 
Mungo Park in the conclusion _ that _South Africa had once beeiQ^a 
^at of grea t enterprise, accompanied with a fair degree-^f 
civilization . 

With the later discoveries of Dr. David Livingstone, and, fol- 
lowing him, of the intrepid American adventurer, Henry M. 
Stanley, the reading people of the whole world are fully familiar T 
While the people of almost every land on the globe are perusing 
the last narrative of Stanley, it is unnecessary to repeat the con- 
ditions which he has found to exist. He has imparted sufficient 
information for cultured men to arrive at the just conclusion that 
Africa has not always been the dark continent as it now appears to 
us, but that it has been the theater of great exploits in the past 
ages, the record of which has been lost to mankind. 

This line of thought and deduction has been pursued by the 
writer with a view of convincing men of the white race, who may 
take time to peruse this volume, that the Negro race is capable of 
the highest degree of civilization, and that the dusky people of 
African abstraction can maintain a place with honor along side of 
the most famous nations of the globe . All that is required to prove 
the force and truth of such a theory is to give the Negro a fair 



124 vaughan's plea foe the old slaves. 

start in life as a newh^ made freeman ; and in no way can this work 
be more speedily and satisfactoril}^ accomplished than by giving 
an adequate compensation to those of the race who have been un- 
justly held in vassalage from their youth up. While righting a 
wrong the men and women who have suffered wrong will be 
started upon a new existence. They will hold up their heads in 
pride, because the country the}^ love and have served, both in 
bondage and as freemen, has had the courage to do them justice. 

It would be manifestly unjust to the jSTegro people of America 
for this discussion of what Africa has been in the x^ast , to be closed 
without calling attention to a criticism which has been often in- 
dulged, even b}^ men holding high places in the government. 

The objection has been raised against the Negro, as a distinctive 
feature of the human race, that his subjugation and reduction to a 
condition of slaver}^ constituted an unanswerable argument against 
his capacity of maintaining a high standard of excellence after 
having arrived at such an eminence . Surel}^ this view has not 
been well taken, and facts certainly will not support it. Because 
Africa has been the seat of learning and empire, and has been peo- 
pled b}^ a race who builded cities and towns and monuments of 
greatness, and, after the lapse of ages, her population became dis- 
persed , her knowledge of learning destroyed and the genius of her 
great inventors brought to nought, it cannot be said that other 
people of various races have not suffered the same degradation 
and humiliation. The researches which have been made U]3on 
American soil teaches the unmistakable lesson that in this land 
there once existed a nation, or nations, taught in the highest de- 
gree of scholastic information . The buried cities which have been 
brought to light tell the story of lost greatness in terms that can- 
not be misunderstood . 

Beginning with the researches of John L. Stephens in Central 
America, and adding to the information which he imparted to the 
world the subsequent discoveries of other explorers, we must ad- 
mit that the North American continent was peopled, in a for- 
gotten past, by races of men who were skilled in all the arts and 
sciences requisite to make enlightened nations. They builded 
cities, raised temples and monuments and conducted a thriving 
commerce, of which convincing traces have been found. 

AVho were these people ? AYhence did they come ? How were 
they overthrown ? AYas it by the arms and prowess of conquerors, 
or by some terrible commotion of nature .f* If the former, what be- 
came of the conquerors ? If the latter, may it not be equally true 



yaughan's plea for the old slaves. 125 

that the learning, the greatness and the productive wealth of 
ancient African nations fell before the hurricane, the whirlwind or 
the earthquake of nature, just as American cities were buried and 
wiped out of existence ? 

When Christopher Columbus discovered the western hemis- 
phere , he found here tribes of savages of a lineage before unknown 
to the world. As subsequent discoveries were made in new 
quarters there continued to be found tribes differing in some 
features, but preserving the general outlines of one people. 
Whether these tribes descsnded from an ancient population 
which dwelt in cities and pursued avocations of civilized life, 
cannot be known. All is a matter of conjecture and speculation. 
But the fact remains that the work of destruction once swept 
over the land wherein we live, just as it did over the con- 
tinent of Africa. Whether the besom of destruction was 
simultaneous in both hemispheres, or whether countless ages inter- 
vened between the visitation of. wrath in the two lands, is a prob- 
lem which may never be solved. But the conclusion is irresistible 
that the Kegro race is no more accountable for the destruction 
which visited Africa, than that the races found on American soil 
can be held responsible for the overturning of the empire which 
once flourished here. 

In her day Babylon was a great city, the home of prophets 
and patriarchs, the seat of learning, luxury and fabulous wealth. 
Her rulers were the most j^owerful men of earth. The glory of 
the great city was the wonder of the world, and her splendor 
appeared likely to endure forever. That city fell, and the site 
where it existed is the abode of the howling hyena and other 
savage beasts of the forest. The jSTegroes who dwelt in the 
buried cities of Africa should not be regarded as careless defenders 
of their j)ristine glory any more than that the Asiatic natives 
should be gibetted for having suffered Babj'-ion to fall. 

The duty of the men of the present day is to discard all cavil, 
and to face manfully the stubborn fact that the government of the 
United States did, for three-quarters of a century, suffer a gigantic 
wrong to be perpetrated upon an enslaved race. The stigma of 
that wrong will endure forever, unless the government shall 
recompense the survivors of the race who patiently endured such 
a flagrant act of injustice. The performance of an act of justice 
owing to the ex-slaves of the United States, will redound to the 
honor of a great nation and will receive the admiration and 
encomium of all the generous and noble people of the world . 




FREED, UNEDUCATED, NO MONEY AND NO FRIENDS— RAGS AND POVEItTY 

HIS rORTION. 



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